TY - JOUR A1 - Thibaudeau, Laure A1 - Taubenberger, Anna V. A1 - Holzapfel, Boris M. A1 - Quent, Verena M. A1 - Fuehrmann, Tobias A1 - Hesami, Parisa A1 - Brown, Toby D. A1 - Dalton, Paul D. A1 - Power, Carl A. A1 - Hollier, Brett G. A1 - Hutmacher, Dietmar W. T1 - A tissue-engineered humanized xenograft model of human breast cancer metastasis to bone JF - Disease Models & Mechanisms N2 - The skeleton is a preferred homing site for breast cancer metastasis. To date, treatment options for patients with bone metastases are mostly palliative and the disease is still incurable. Indeed, key mechanisms involved in breast cancer osteotropism are still only partially understood due to the lack of suitable animal models to mimic metastasis of human tumor cells to a human bone microenvironment. In the presented study, we investigate the use of a human tissue-engineered bone construct to develop a humanized xenograft model of breast cancer-induced bone metastasis in a murine host. Primary human osteoblastic cell-seeded melt electrospun scaffolds in combination with recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 7 were implanted subcutaneously in non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient mice. The tissue-engineered constructs led to the formation of a morphologically intact 'organ' bone incorporating a high amount of mineralized tissue, live osteocytes and bone marrow spaces. The newly formed bone was largely humanized, as indicated by the incorporation of human bone cells and human-derived matrix proteins. After intracardiac injection, the dissemination of luciferase-expressing human breast cancer cell lines to the humanized bone ossicles was detected by bioluminescent imaging. Histological analysis revealed the presence of metastases with clear osteolysis in the newly formed bone. Thus, human tissue-engineered bone constructs can be applied efficiently as a target tissue for human breast cancer cells injected into the blood circulation and replicate the osteolytic phenotype associated with breast cancer-induced bone lesions. In conclusion, we have developed an appropriate model for investigation of species-specific mechanisms of human breast cancer-related bone metastasis in vivo. KW - breast cancer KW - bone metastasis KW - humanized xenograft model KW - melt electrospinning KW - tissue engineering KW - osteotropism KW - in vivo KW - stem-cell niche KW - human prostate-cancer KW - morphogenetic protein KW - osteoprogenitor cells KW - endochondral ossification KW - mouse model KW - trabecular bone KW - calcium phosphate KW - skeletal metastases Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117466 VL - 7 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reichert, Johannes A1 - Schmalzl, Jonas A1 - Prager, Patrick A1 - Gilbert, Fabian A1 - Quent, Verena M. C. A1 - Steinert, Andre F. A1 - Rudert, Maximilian A1 - Nöth, Ulrich T1 - Synergistic effect of Indian hedgehog and bone morphogenetic protein-2 gene transfer to increase the osteogenic potential of human mesenchymal stem cells JF - Stem Cell Research & Therapy N2 - Introduction To stimulate healing of large bone defects research has concentrated on the application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Methods In the present study, we induced the overexpression of the growth factors bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) and/or Indian hedgehog (IHH) in human MSCs by adenoviral transduction to increase their osteogenic potential. GFP and nontransduced MSCs served as controls. The influence of the respective genetic modification on cell metabolic activity, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, mineralization in cell culture, and osteogenic marker gene expression was investigated. Results Transduction had no negative influence on cell metabolic activity or proliferation. ALP activity showed a typical rise-and-fall pattern with a maximal activity at day 14 and 21 after osteogenic induction. Enzyme activity was significantly higher in groups cultured with osteogenic media. The overexpression of BMP-2 and especially IHH + BMP-2 resulted in a significantly higher mineralization after 28 days. This was in line with obtained quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses, which showed a significant increase in osteopontin and osteocalcin expression for osteogenically induced BMP-2 and IHH + BMP-2 transduced cells when compared with the other groups. Moreover, an increase in runx2 expression was observed in all osteogenic groups toward day 21. It was again more pronounced for BMP-2 and IHH + BMP-2 transduced cells cultured in osteogenic media. Conclusions In summary, viral transduction did not negatively influence cell metabolic activity and proliferation. The overexpression of BMP-2 in combination with or without IHH resulted in an increased deposition of mineralized extracellular matrix, and expression of osteogenic marker genes. Viral transduction therefore represents a promising means to increase the osteogenic potential of MSCs and the combination of different transgenes may result in synergistic effects. KW - Medizin Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97010 UR - http://stemcellres.com/content/4/5/105 ER -