In Vitro Osteoblast Assays

Overview

Pharmatest has developed proprietary in vitro osteoblast assays that are designed for pharmacodynamic testing of new anabolic agents against osteoporosis before entering animal studies.

Design

Pharmatest’s osteoblast assays involve culturing mesenchymal progenitor cells that are first allowed to differentiate into mature osteoblasts, enabling to study direct effects of drug candidates on osteoblast differentiation. The culture period can then be extended to allow the formed osteoblasts to form bone nodules, enabling to study effects of drug candidates on bone forming activity of mature osteoblasts.

Intracellular alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity is measured as an index of osteoblast differentiation at the end of the osteoblast differentiation period, and the amount of calcium deposited into the formed bone nodules is determined as an index of inorganic bone matrix formation after extending the culture period for an additional five days. Further accuracy can be achieved by measuring secreted N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (PINP) released into the culture medium as an index of organic bone matrix formation.

Advantages

Pharmatest preclinical research centre uses mouse mesenchymal progenitor cells (KS483) that are cultured on collagen-coated wells in the presence of ascorbic acid and β-glycerophosphate. The preclinical CRO’s bone formation assays provide excellent tools for fast and reliable efficacy testing of new anabolic therapies against osteoporosis. They also form the most sensitive estrogen-responsive in vitro pharmacodynamic testing platforms that are commercially available.

Resources

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Supplier Information
Supplier: Pharmatest Services Ltd
Address: Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4 C, 5th floor, 20520 Turku, Finland
Tel: +358 2 278 4700
Fax: +358 2 278 4710
Website: www.pharmatest.com