In Vitro Model System for Early Bone Formation Developed

Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and Radboud University Medical Center have reporting success growing a lifelike piece of bone tissue from human stem cells.

Three types of cells play the main role in bone formation: osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and osteocytes. "Most studies so far have focused on one of these types of cells, but that is not a good representation of the real tissue," says Sandra Hofmann, senior author of the study published in Advanced Functional Materials. "We present here a piece of woven bone (early-stage bone) that developed from stem cells and contains two types of these cells: osteoblasts and osteocytes. We now see that we can make lifelike bone exclusively with these two cell types."

"And perhaps more importantly, our system behaves just like early-stage bone," adds first author Anat Akiva. "We show that both types of cells produce the proteins that they need for their functionality, and we show with the greatest detail that the matrix actually is the bone matrix we see in real tissue."

The team says their organoid for early-stage bone formation can be used to investigate the cause of genetic bone diseases such as brittle bone disease and possible treatments. "Remember that the origin of many diseases is at the molecular level—and so is the treatment," says Akiva. "In fact, we now have a simple system in a reliable environment in which we can poke around and see how bone cells react to the stimuli we provide."