Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multi-potent cells that are able to differentiate and mature into various types of cells under a certain microenvironment for cell therapy and tissue regeneration. Scandium (Sc), an important rare earth element, recently has been intensively investigated in biomedical fields as well as industrial engineering, and chloride channels have been proven to be able to affect osteogenic differentiation. Thus, it is significant to investigate effects of ScCl₃ on cell activities of MSCs. In this paper, rat bone MSCs (rBMSCs) were co-cultured with various concentrations of ScCl₃ (1 × 10⁻⁸, 1 × 10⁻⁶, and 1 × 10⁻⁴ mol/L) to evaluate their influence on cell proliferation as well as osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation in vitro. The results indicate that ScCl₃ promotes the proliferation of rBMSCs initially, which is yet reduced upon ion accumulation. We used immunofluorescence staining, quantitative real time polymerase chain reactions, and assays measuring alkaline phosphatase activity, mineralized deposits, and intracytoplasmic lipids to reveal that rBMSCs treated with ScCl₃ at concentrations of 1 × 10⁻⁸ –1 × 10⁻⁶ mol/L can enhance levels of osteogenic differentiation in a dose-dependent manner and reduce adipogenic differentiation to a certain degree through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. These results indicate that appropriate concentrations of ScCl₃ can improve osteogenic differentiation in the lineage commitment of rBMSCs, and thus, promote bone remodeling. This study implies that ScCl₃ possesses great potentials in the treatment of bone diseases and would provide new strategy of designing composites by SiCl₃ doping for biomedical applications in the future.

间充质干细胞（MSCs）是一种多能细胞，能够在一定的微环境下分化成熟为各种类型的细胞，用于细胞治疗和组织再生。钪 (Sc) 是一种重要的稀土元素，最近在生物医学领域和工业工程中得到了深入研究，并且已证明氯离子通道能够影响成骨分化。因此，研究ScCl ₃对MSCs细胞活性的影响具有重要意义。在本文中，大鼠骨 MSCs (rBMSCs) 与不同浓度的 ScCl ₃ (1 × 10 ^-8、1 × 10 ^-6和 1 × 10 ^-4 mol/L) 以评估它们对体外细胞增殖以及成骨和成脂分化的影响。结果表明，ScCl ₃最初促进了rBMSCs的增殖，但随着离子积累而减少。我们使用免疫荧光染色、实时定量聚合酶链反应和测量碱性磷酸酶活性、矿化沉积物和胞质内脂质的测定来揭示用浓度为 1 × 10 ^-8 –1 × 10 ^{-6 的}ScCl ₃处理的 rBMSCs mol/L 可通过 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路以剂量依赖性方式增强成骨分化水平，并在一定程度上降低成脂分化水平。这些结果表明，适当浓度的 ScCl ₃可以改善 rBMSCs 谱系定型的成骨分化，从而促进骨重塑。该研究表明，ScCl ₃在治疗骨疾病方面具有巨大的潜力，将为未来生物医学应用的SiCl ₃掺杂设计复合材料提供新的策略。