Phenanthroline treated MSC

The invention relates to the field of medicine and in particular to the treatment of ischemia and to angiogenesis. The invention further relates to novel uses of phenanthroline in replacing a missing biological structure, supporting a damaged biological structure and/or enhancing an existing biological structure and to novel medical products

Extracellular matrix and tissue engineering applications

The extracellular matrix is a key component during regeneration and maintenance of tissues and organs, and it therefore plays a critical role in successful tissue engineering as well. Tissue engineers should recognise that engineering technology can be deduced from natural repair processes. Due to advances in such distinct areas as biology, engineering, physics and chemistry and the possibility of using robotics to facilitate the search for new treatments, we can identify the basic principles and extrapolate them into tools to mimic the regenerative process. Ubiquitously distributed throughout the body, the extracellular matrix surrounding the cells plays a key instructive role, in addition to the previously recognised supportive role. In this review we will highlight the role of the extracellular matrix and discuss the latest technological possibilities to exploit the extracellular matrix in tissue engineering

The response of human mesenchymal stem cells to osteogenic signals and its impact on bone tissue engineering.

Bone tissue engineering using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) is a multidisciplinary field that aims to treat patients with trauma, spinal fusion and large bone defects. Cell-based bone tissue engineering encompasses the isolation of multipotent hMSCs from the bone marrow of the patient, in vitro expansion and seeding onto porous scaffold materials. In vitro pre-differentiation of hMSCs into the osteogenic lineage augments their in vivo bone forming capacity. Differentiation of hMSCs into bone forming osteoblasts is a multi-step process regulated by various molecular signaling pathways, which warrants a thorough understanding of these signaling cues for the efficient use of hMSCs in bone tissue engineering. Recently, there has been a surge of knowledge on the molecular cues regulating osteogenic differentiation but extrapolation to hMSC differentiation is not guaranteed, because of species- and cell-type specificity. In this review, we describe a number of key osteogenic signaling pathways, which directly or indirectly regulate osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs. We will discuss how and to what extent the process is different from that in other cell types with special emphasis on applications in bone tissue engineerin