Bone Cells and Mechanical Stimulation : Studying the Effect of Substrates on Bone Cells' Response to Mechanical Stimulation

Bone Tissue Engineering is a promising field that helps human needs by applying the principles of biology and engineering to the development of feasible substitutes that restore and retain the function of human bone tissues. The live cells in the body attach to the normal scaffold known as extracellular matrix but in in-vitro studies presence of a scaffold is essential to keep cells alive. Therefore, good cell adhesion on scaffolds is essential for successful tissue engineering. The aim of this book is to identify the key factors of coating which leads to better cell adhesion and to establish the relationship of cells' adhesion and the treatment of substrates. Another aim is to apply four-point bending system to stimulate bone cells and finally evaluate bone cells' response to the mechanical stimuli on different substrates by morphology alteration using histological and immunological staining methods. Human bone cell line (MG-63) and rat primary bone cells were used in this study. Two-dimensional substrates were used as a scaffold model. The selected substrates included PLLA, PLLA coated with PDLLA-b-PEO co-polymer, collagen coated, RGD grafted PLLA-PEO coated substrates.