INTERACTION OF BIOPHYSIC STIMULI ON CONDROGENIC DIFFERENTIATION OF MSCs: PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON THE EVALUATION OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECT OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS

The aim of the present study is to investigate in vitro chondrocyte-like cells treated with electromagnetic fields to evaluate over time maintenance of chondrocyte phenotype, in presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1ß). Mesenchimal Stem Cells taken from bone marrow were cultured (in pellet) in medium conditioning towards the chondrogenic lineage. The targets are firstly to standardize the method to obtain chondrocyte pellets in terms of a) type/amount of withdrawal, b) time/degree of differentiation, and c) amount of extracellular matrix production; secondly, to extend over time chondrocyte differentiation, checking the phenotype maintenance, after adding pro-inflammatory cytokines in culture medium with/without the application of electromagnetic fields (device provided by IGEA-Carpi). The pellets obtained were coltured for different times (21, 28, 34 days), verifying the presence of type 2 collagen (index of chondrocyte differentiation). The best differentiation was obtained after 28 days of culture. In such pellets, after inflammatory induction and application of electromagnetic field (1.7mT, 75Hz) for 15 days, the observations showed that after about 12 days of treatment the amount of PGE2 in medium decreases (31%) while the proteoglycan production slightly increases (2%). In conclusion, electromagnetic fields could be proposed (if the results will be confirmed) in preventing chondrocyte de-differentiation due to inflammation induced by IL-1ß, to integrate regenerative medicine techniques in the healing of cartilage lesions.