Cellular reactions to bone-derived material.

Demineralized bone has been used as an acceptable alternative to fresh autogenous bone grafting in a variety of clinical reconstructive procedures. With the recent expansion of regional and national tissue banks, more implants are being used in routine applications. Questions raised about the bioactivity of human demineralized bone may be resolved by development of relevant assays for screening a lot of banked tissue. Such a bioassay could be developed based on the effects of osteoinductive materials on cells in vitro. Various effects of culture with demineralized bone or its components have been reported for cell lines or embryonic, fetal, or neonatal rodent and chick tissues and cells. In this study, human dermal fibroblasts and a variety of other cell types expressed features of chondroblastic phenotype when cultured with demineralized bone powder.