Preparation of MC3T3-E1 cell sheets through short-term osteogenic medium application.

Cell sheet engineering is an emerging field based on the acquisition of cells together with their extracellular matrix (ECM) and is used not only in vitro but also in regeneration studies of various tissues in the clinic. Within this scope, wide variety of cell types have been investigated in terms of sheet formation and underlying mechanism. MC3T3-E1 is a mouse pre-osteoblast cell line that has greatly attracted researchers' attention for bone tissue engineering (BTE) applications thanks to its high proliferation and differentiation properties. The potential of MC3T3-E1 cells on sheet formation and the effects of culture conditions have not been investigated in detail. This study aims to examine the effects of growth and osteogenic medium on cell sheet formation of MC3T3-E1. As a result of this study; intact, ECM-rich, transferable cell sheets at the beginning of the mineralization phase of the differentiation process were obtained by using osteogenic medium. Hereafter, 3D tissue model can be constructed by stacking MC3T3 cell sheets in vitro. This 3D model can conveniently be used for the development of novel biomaterials and in vitro drug screening applications to reduce the need for animal experiments.