Simvastatin-doped pre-mixed calcium phosphate cement inhibits osteoclast differentiation and resorption.

Simvastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug, has been shown to have positive effects on fracture healing and bone regeneration based on its dual effect; bone anabolic and anti-resorptive. In this study the focus has been on the anti-resorptive effect of the drug and its impact on the degradation of acidic calcium phosphate cement. The drug was added to the pre-mixed acidic cement in three different doses (0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 mg/g cement) and the release was measured. Furthermore the effect of the loaded cements on osteoclast differentiation and resorption was evaluated by TRAP activity, number of multinucleated cells, gene expression and calcium ion concentration in vitro using murine bone marrow macrophages. The simvastatin did not affect the cell proliferation while it clearly inhibited osteoclastic differentiation at all three doses as shown by TRAP staining, TRAP activity and gene expression. Consistent with these results, simvastatin also impaired resorption of cements by osteoclasts as indicated by reduced calcium ion concentrations. In conclusion, our findings suggest that simvastatin-doped pre-mixed acidic calcium phosphate cement inhibits the osteoclastic mediated resorption of the cement thus slowing down the degradation rate. In addition with simvastatin's bone anabolic effect it makes the cement-drug combination a promising bone graft material, especially useful for sites with compromised bone formation.

Zebrafish: A possible tool to evaluate bioactive ions.

Zebrafish is a well-established model organism with a skeletal structure that highly resembles mammalian bone. Yet its use in the research field of biomaterials has been limited. One area that could benefit from this model system is the evaluation of ionic dissolution products from different materials. As a proof of concept we have evaluated the effect of silicate ions on the zebrafish larvae and compared it to a well-known osteoblastic cell line, MC3T3-E1 subclone 14. We have shown that sodium metasilicate (125 µM and 625 µM) induces more mineralisation in a dose-dependent manner in zebrafish larvae, 9 days post fertilisation as compared to the non-treated group. Moreover the same trends were seen when adding sodium metasilicate to MC3T3-E1 cultures, with more mineralisation and higher ALP levels with higher doses of silicate (25, 125 and 625 µM). These results indicate the feasibility of zebrafish larvae for ionic dissolution studies. The zebrafish model is superior to isolated cell cultures in the aspect that it includes the whole bone remodelling system, with osteoblasts, osteoclasts and osteocytes. Zebrafish could thus provide a powerful in vivo tool and be a bridge between cell culture systems and mammalian models.

Resorption of monetite calcium phosphate cement by mouse bone marrow derived osteoclasts.

Recently the interest for monetite based biomaterials as bone grafts has increased; since in vivo studies have demonstrated that they are degradable, osteoconductive and improve bone healing. So far osteoclastic resorption of monetite has received little attention. The current study focuses on the osteoclastic resorption of monetite cement using primary mouse bone marrow macrophages, which have the potential to differentiate into resorbing osteoclasts when treated with receptor activator NF-κB ligand (RANKL). The osteoclast viability and differentiation were analysed on monetite cement and compared to cortical bovine bone discs. After seven days live/dead stain results showed no significant difference in viability between the two materials. However, the differentiation was significantly higher on the bone discs, as shown by tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity and Cathepsin K gene expression. Moreover monetite samples with differentiated osteoclasts had a 1.4 fold elevated calcium ion concentration in their culture media compared to monetite samples with undifferentiated cells. This indicates active resorption of monetite in the presence of osteoclasts. In conclusion, this study suggests that osteoclasts have a crucial role in the resorption of monetite based biomaterials. It also provides a useful model for studying in vitro resorption of acidic calcium phosphate cements by primary murine cells.