Mesenchymal stem cell-mediated endochondral ossification utilising micropellets and brief chondrogenic priming, towards scale-up

With limited autologous and donor bone graft availability, there is an increasing need for alternative graft sources. We have previously shown that chondrogenically priming mesenchymal stem cell pellets for 28 days in vitro will reproducibly result in endochondral bone formation in vivo [1]. However, the priming time is extensive for clinical applications and the resulting bone quantity is often insufficient to fill large defects [2]. To this end we developed a micropellet (μpellet)-fibrin construct, intended to scale-up bone formation quantity while decreasing the in vitro priming required in an effort to resolve these issues.