Mesenchymal stem cells systemically injected into femoral marrow of dogs home to mandibular defects to enhance new bone formation.

Musculoskeletal diseases cost the U.S. $849 billion annually. To date, there has been no proof that remote long bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC) can home to craniofacial defects for bone regeneration. There has been no report that systemic BMSC injection can increase new bone formation in large animals. The objectives of this study were to use a sex-mismatched canine model for systemic BMSC injection and homing to mandibular defects and to investigate appendicular BMSC migration to craniofacial defects to increase new bone formation. Male beagle dog BMSC were injected into the femoral marrow cavity of female dogs upon which mandibular defects were created. The dogs were sacrificed at 6 weeks. Cells with Y chromosome markers were detected in defects of female dogs with systemic male BMSC injection, indicating the homing of the transplanted BMSC from femoral marrow to the mandibular defect. New bone formation in dogs with systemic BMSC injection was 20-40% higher than control without BMSC injection (p<0.05). Mineralized new bone percentage was increased by 20-40% due to systemic BMSC injection (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study proved that (1) allogeneic BMSC injected into long bone marrow are capable of homing to both appendicular and craniofacial bone in large animals and (2) systemically injected BMSC can significantly increase new bone formation in dog's mandibular defects. These results may help advance the understanding of stem cell homing and present a therapy to enhance bone repair, which may have a wide applicability to the regenerative medicine field.