In vitro effect of direct current electrical stimulation on rat mesenchymal stem cells

Sahba Mobini; Liudmila Leppik; Vishnu Thottakkattumana Parameswaran; John Howard Barker

doi:10.7717/peerj.2821

In vitro effect of direct current electrical stimulation on rat mesenchymal stem cells

PeerJ. 2017 Jan 12:5:e2821. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2821. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Sahba Mobini^#^{1

2}, Liudmila Leppik^#¹, Vishnu Thottakkattumana Parameswaran¹, John Howard Barker¹

Affiliations

¹ Frankfurt Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, Experimental Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
² School of Materials, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Electrical stimulation (ES) has been successfully used to treat bone defects clinically. Recently, both cellular and molecular approaches have demonstrated that ES can change cell behavior such as migration, proliferation and differentiation.

Methods: In the present study we exposed rat bone marrow- (BM-) and adipose tissue- (AT-) derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to direct current electrical stimulation (DC ES) and assessed temporal changes in osteogenic differentiation. We applied 100 mV/mm of DC ES for 1 h per day for three, seven and 14 days to cells cultivated in osteogenic differentiation medium and assessed viability and calcium deposition at the different time points. In addition, expression of osteogenic genes, Runx2, Osteopontin, and Col1A2 was assessed in BM- and AT-derived MSCs at the different time points.

Results: Results showed that ES changed osteogenic gene expression patterns in both BM- and AT-MSCs, and these changes differed between the two groups. In BM-MSCs, ES caused a significant increase in mRNA levels of Runx2, Osteopontin and Col1A2 at day 7, while in AT-MSCs, the increase in Runx2 and Osteopontin expression were observed after 14 days of ES.

Discussion: This study shows that rat bone marrow- and adipose tissue-derived stem cells react differently to electrical stimuli, an observation that could be important for application of electrical stimulation in tissue engineering.

Keywords: Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells; Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells; Bone tissue engineering; Direct current electrical stimulation.

Grants and funding

The work described herein was supported in part by a grant from the AO Foundation (#S-14-03H) and from the Friedrichsheim Foundation (Stiftung Friedrichsheim) in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.