Department of Chemical Engineering, Hacettepe University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey.
Division of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Hacettepe University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2023 Nov 13;9(11):6175-6185. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.3c00506. Epub 2023 Oct 5.
The CRISPR/Cas9 mechanism offers promising therapeutic approaches for bone regeneration by stimulating or suppressing critical signaling pathways. In this study, we aimed to increase the activity of BMP-2 signaling through knockout of , thereby establishing a synergistic effect on the osteogenic activity of cells in the presence of BMP-2. Since is an antagonist expressed in skeletal tissues and binds to subunits of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) to inhibit osteogenic differentiation, here expression was knocked out using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. In accordance with this purpose, C2C12 (mouse myoblast) cells were transfected with CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids. Transfection was achieved with Lipofectamine and confirmed with intense fluorescent signals in microscopic images and deletion in target sequence in Sanger sequencing analysis. Thus, knockout cells were identified as a new cell source for tissue engineering studies. Then, the transfected cells were seeded on highly porous silk scaffolds bearing BMP-2-loaded silk nanoparticles (30 ng BMP-2/mg silk nanoparticle) in the size of 288 ± 62 nm. BMP-2 is released from the scaffolds in a controlled manner for up to 60 days. The knockout of by CRISPR/Cas9 was found to synergistically promote osteogenic differentiation in the presence of BMP-2 through increased and expression and mineralization. Gene editing of and BMP-2 increased almost 2-fold expression and almost 3-fold expression compared to the control group. Moreover, transfected cells produced extracellular matrix (ECM) containing collagen fibers on the scaffolds and mineral-like structures were formed on the fibers. In addition, mineralization characterized by intense Alizarin red staining was detected in transfected cells cultured in the presence of BMP-2, while the other groups did not exhibit any mineralized areas. As has been demonstrated in this study, the CRISPR/Cas9 mechanism has great potential for obtaining new cell sources to be used in tissue engineering studies.
CRISPR/Cas9 机制通过刺激或抑制关键信号通路,为骨再生提供了有前途的治疗方法。在这项研究中,我们旨在通过敲除 来增加 BMP-2 信号的活性,从而在存在 BMP-2 的情况下建立对细胞成骨活性的协同作用。由于 是在骨骼组织中表达的拮抗剂,并且与骨形态发生蛋白 (BMPs) 的亚基结合以抑制成骨分化,因此我们使用 CRISPR/Cas9 系统敲除 表达。根据这一目的,用 CRISPR/Cas9 质粒转染 C2C12(小鼠成肌细胞)细胞。转染通过 Lipofectamine 进行,并在显微镜图像中观察到强烈的荧光信号和 Sanger 测序分析中靶序列的缺失来证实。因此,鉴定出 敲除细胞是组织工程研究的新细胞来源。然后,将转染的细胞接种在具有负载 BMP-2 的丝纳米颗粒(30ng BMP-2/mg 丝纳米颗粒)的高度多孔丝支架上,其尺寸为 288±62nm。BMP-2 以可控的方式从支架中释放,持续长达 60 天。通过 CRISPR/Cas9 敲除 发现,在存在 BMP-2 的情况下,通过增加 和 的表达和矿化,协同促进成骨分化。与对照组相比, 和 BMP-2 的基因编辑使 表达增加近 2 倍,使 表达增加近 3 倍。此外,转染的细胞在支架上产生含有胶原纤维的细胞外基质(ECM),并且在纤维上形成类矿物结构。此外,在存在 BMP-2 的情况下培养的转染细胞中检测到强烈的茜素红染色的矿化,而其他组没有显示任何矿化区域。正如本研究所示,CRISPR/Cas9 机制具有获得新细胞来源的巨大潜力,可用于组织工程研究。
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