Synergy between Genetic and Tissue Engineering: Runx2 Overexpression and in Vitro Construct Development Enhance in Vivo Mineralization

Tissue engineering has emerged as a promising strategy to generate bone-grafting substrates. These approaches, however, are limited by an insufficient supply of committed osteoprogenitor cells and dedifferentiation of osteogenic cells during in vitro culture. To address these limitations, we engineered bone marrow stromal cells to constitutively express the osteoblastic transcription factor Runx2/Cbfa1, using retroviral gene delivery. These...