Comparative Investigation of Human Amniotic Epithelial Cells and Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Application in Bone Tissue Engineering

Figure 4

Verification of the upregulation of FOXC2 and ectopic osteogenesis of hAECs, hBMSCs, and hAFMSCs. (a) Expression of FOXC2 in all three cell types was significantly increased in a BMP2-dependent manner. (b, c) Both real-time PCR and western blot revealed that BMP2 significantly promoted the expression of FOXC2 in all the three cell sources. The western blot study also demonstrated that undifferentiated hBMSCs exhibited a higher expression level of FOXC2 than the other two cell sources. (d) Ectopic osteogenesis of hAECs, hBMSCs, and hAFMSCs in nude mice. β-TCP scaffolds carrying hAECs, hAFMSCs, and hBMSCs or alone were implanted subcutaneously for 4 weeks. HE staining showed no well-mineralized islands in either experimental groups or control group. Immunohistochemical staining showed that all cell types were viable as indicated by the positive expression of GFP. Moreover, OPN and OCN were evident in the experimental groups but not in the control group.

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