Maxillary sinus floor elevation using a tissue engineered bone complex with BMP-2 gene modified bMSCs and a novel porous ceramic scaffold in rabbits.

OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of maxillary sinus floor elevation by a tissue engineered bone complex with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) gene modified bone marrow stromal cells (bMSCs) and a novel porous ceramic scaffold (OsteoBone) in rabbits.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: bMSCs derived from New Zealand rabbit bone marrow were cultured and transduced with adenovirus AdBMP-2 and with AdEGFP gene (without BMP-2 gene sequence) as a control, respectively, in vitro. These bMSCs were then combined with OsteoBone scaffold at a concentration of 2 x 10(7)cells/ml and used to elevate the maxillary sinus floor in rabbits. Eight rabbits were randomly allocated into groups and sacrificed at weeks 2 and 4. For each time point, 8 maxillary sinus floor elevation surgeries were made bilaterally in 4 rabbits for the two groups (n=4 per group): group A (AdBMP-2-bMSCs/material) and group B (AdEGFP-bMSCs/material). All samples were evaluated by histologic and histomorphometric analysis.

RESULTS: The augmented maxillary sinus height was maintained for both groups over the entire experimental period, while new bone area increased over time for group A. At week 4 after operation, bone area in group A was significantly more than that in group B (P<0.05), and was more obviously detected in the center of the elevated space. Under a confocal microscope, green fluorescence in newly formed bone was observed in the EGFP group, which suggests that those implanted bMSCs had contributed to the new bone formation.

CONCLUSION: bMSCs modified with AdBMP-2 gene can promote new bone formation in elevating the rabbit maxillary sinus. OsteoBone scaffold could be an ideal carrier for gene enhanced bone tissue engineering.