Osteoblast proliferation and differentiation on different bone graft materials

Aim of this study was to investigate the biological activity of eight bone graft materials analyzing their influence on osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. The materials were classified as: Synthetic materials: Sintbone (Ghimas), Fisiograft (Ghimas) and Ostim (Heraeus-Kulzer). Animal-derived materials: Biogen (Biotek), BioOss (Geistlich) and Osteograft (Dentsply-Friadent). Mixed materials: Biostite (Vebas) and PepGen P-15 (Dentsply- Friadent). The bone graft materials have been tested by the MTT test (proliferation quantitative analysis) using osteoblasts SaOS- 2 coming from human osteosarchoma. Afterwards the ALP enzymatic assay was performed. Both tests were repeated three times for each specimen at 3 and 5 days. After the quantitative evaluation of the cellular proliferation by MTT test, we quantified the absorbance value for each specimen using a spectrophotometer at 405nm and we calculated the mean ALP value for each specimen, for each group of materials and the ALP/ MTT ratio. Data were statistically analyzed (ANOVA one way and post hoc Scheffe` tests). The mean values of MTT (proliferation test) and of ALP (differentiation test) were different between tested materials. Within the limits of the in vitro studies it can be concluded that: Tested bone graft materials induced different amounts of cell proliferation and differentiation. Synthetic and animal-derived materials showed the best values of both parameters considered (proliferation and differentiation) statistically different from mixed materials (P < 0.05). In particular, Biostite (mixed materials) showed statistically lowest values of proliferation and differentiation (this material has a cytotoxic effect) with respect to the others (P < 0.001). Synthetic materials, as well as animal-derived ones could be used.