Bone grafts are one of the most commonly transplanted tissues. However, autologous grafts are in short supply, and can be associated with pain and donor-site morbidity. The creation of tissue-engineered bone grafts could help to fulfil clinical demand and provide a crucial resource for drug screening. Here, we show that vibrations of nanoscale amplitude provided by a newly developed bioreactor can differentiate a potential autologous cell source, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), into mineralized tissue in 3D. We demonstrate that nanoscale mechanotransduction can stimulate osteogenesis independently of other environmental factors, such as matrix rigidity. We show this by generating mineralized matrix from MSCs seeded in collagen gels with stiffness an order of magnitude below the stiffness of gels needed to induce bone formation in vitro. Our approach is scalable and can be compatible with 3D scaffolds.

骨移植物是最常见的移植组织之一。然而，自体移植物供不应求，并可能与疼痛和供体部位发病有关。组织工程化的骨移植物的创建可以帮助满足临床需求，并为药物筛查提供至关重要的资源。在这里，我们显示了由新开发的生物反应器提供的纳米级振幅的振动可以将潜在的自体细胞来源，间充质干细胞（MSC）分化成3D矿化的组织。我们证明纳米级机械转导可以独立于其他环境因素（例如基质刚度）刺激成骨作用。我们通过从植入胶原蛋白凝胶的MSC中生成矿化基质来证明这一点，其刚度比在体外诱导骨形成所需的凝胶的刚度低一个数量级。