Abstract
Massive segmental bone defects remain to be challenging clinical problems. Recent studies have shown that baculovirus-mediated gene therapy combined with mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy can improve the massive segmental bone healing. Aside from MSCs, adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) have evolved to be a popular cell source because of the ease to isolate cells in abundance. However, ASCs are superior to MSCs in their osteogenesis potential. Therefore, hereby we aimed to combine baculovirus-mediated microRNA (miRNA) expression with ASCs therapy, hoping that the miRNA can assist the regulation of osteogenesis and improve bone healing. We constructed several baculoviruses harboring miRNAs putatively associated with osteogenesis. The human ASCs (hASCS) were transduced with the new baculoviruses and the osteogenesis were evaluated. After identifying the miRNA(s) that augments the osteogenesis, we will construct new virus with FLP/Frt long-term system 。However, hASCs engineered by long term system Bac-FCBW combining Bac-miR148b which identified to improve the efficiency of osteogenesis in this study could only slightly heal the critical-size (4mm) segmental calvarial bone defect at 4 weeks implantation. (still waiting for the results)