In vitro effects of Concentrated Growth Factors on BMP-2 synthesis by human osteoblasts

Bone morphogenetic proteins, and especially BMP-2, play an important role in bone regeneration, stimulating osteoblasts differentiation. Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF) is an autologous platelet preparation, obtained from the patient’s own blood, with a specific protocol of centrifugation and contain-ing several different growth factors, including also BMP-2, with an average release of 5-10 pg (1). So, in the current study, we investigated the in vitro effect of CGF on BMP-2 expression in human osteoblasts (HOBs). Cells were cultured in presence of CGF for 9 days. At the end of each treatment period, cell number were determined by using an automated cell counter. The supernatants were collected, centrifuged at 1200 rpm for 10min at room temperature and used to perform the BMP-2 ELISA assay. BMP-2 production was also evaluated by performing an immunohistochemical analysis on fixed HOBs. Results obtained showed that CGF significantly enhances HOBs proliferation respect to control. As regards BMP-2 expression, we observed a consistently increase in the treatment with CGF respect to the control suggesting that HOBs are stimulated to produce BMP-2. This data underline the potential application of CGF in bone regeneration.