Calcium mimics the chemotactic effect of conditioned media and is an effective inducer of bone regeneration - Fig 2

(A) A critical size calvarial bone defect of 5 mm in diameter was created in the parietal bone of mice (n = 8). After seven weeks, the implanted scaffolds were collected, fixed and prepared for microCT and histological analysis. Representative images of the control scaffold soaked in PBS, MSC’s seeded scaffold, cell-free 20 mM CaSO4 or conditioned media-soaked scaffolds are shown. Quantitative analysis is presented by bone volume/tissue volume (BV/TV %) (B) Masson’s trichrome staining shows the infiltration of host’s cells into the implanted cell-free scaffolds. 20X scale = 400 μm. Differences are considered significant at p<0.05.