Osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation: comparison of human and rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells cultured into polymeric scaffolds.

Hyaluronan-based scaffold were used for in vitro commitment of human and rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Cells were cultured either in monolayer and in 3D conditions up to 35 days. In order to monitor the differentiating processes molecular biology and morphological studies were performed at different time points. All the reported data supported the evidence that both human and rat MSC grown onto hyaluronan-derived three-dimensional scaffold were able to acquire a unique phenotype of chondrocytes and osteocytes depending on the presence of specific differentiation inducing factors added into the culture medium without significative differences in term of time expression of extracellular matrix proteins.