OSTEOGENESIS OF ELECTRICALLY STIMULATED BONE-CELLS MEDIATED IN PART BY CALCIUM-IONS

Culture selected and expanded osteoblastic cells may be able to be rei ntroduced into massive skeletal defects to accelerate cell mediated re generation of skeletal tissues, especially in bone ingrowth in total j oint replacement, fracture healing, and osteoporosis, In vitro osteoge nic cell culture is a useful model in studying the mechanism of bone m etabolism under direct current stimulation, In this study, an osteobla stlike cell line was isolated from newborn rat calvaria, The osteogeni c processes of the in vitro cultured cell line mere studied by cytoche mical, electron microscopic, and energy dispersive xray analysis techn iques that resembled those observed in membrane bone ossification cent ers in vivo, Direct current stimulation of 100 mu A/cm(2) accelerated greatly the proliferation and calcification of the in vitro cultured c ells, Intracellular free calcium ion metabolism was measured with an A dherent Cell Analysis and Sorting Machine, Under direct current stimul ation, intracellular free calcium ion concentration increased an avera ge of 2.3 times of the original level, which may play a key role in re gulating osteogenesis and bone metabolism.