Hyaluronic acid/poly-L-lysine bilayered silica nanoparticles enhance the osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Herein, we evaluate the influence of a PLL–HA bilayer on the surface of silica nanoparticles on their capacity to induce the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs), as a function of their concentration (50 μg mL−1, 25 μg mL−1 and 12.5 μg mL−1). To this purpose, we synthesized silica nanoparticles (diameter of 250 nm; ζ-potential of −25 mV) that were coated with PLL–HA (diameter of 560 nm; ζ-potential of −35 mV). The cell viability, cell proliferation, protein quantification (i.e. MTS, DNA and ALP, respectively) and gene expression (of osteogenesis-related genes: ALP, osteocalcin, collagen type I, bone sialoprotein, Runx-2, osteopontin and osterix) were monitored, for 21 days. We observed the overexpression of most of the tested osteogenic transcripts in the hBMSCs cultured with SiO2–PLL–HA, at concentrations of 25 μg mL−1 and 12.5 μg mL−1. These results indicate that the proposed nanoparticles temporarily improve the osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs at low nanoparticle concentrations.