Effects of Ascorbic Acid on Osteoblast Differentiation in MC3T3-E1 Cells

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin C is an essential agent for cell differentiation for cell. However, for osteogenic differentiation a combined medium of vitamin C, phosphoglyceride and dexamethasone is used. Individual effect of vitamin C can be observed in terms of cell growth and proliferation and eventual differentiation to assess the effect of this chemical agent for using as bone growth. This work investigates the dose dependent effect of vitamin C on MC3T3-E1 type pre-osteoblast cell on cell proliferation and differentiation. METHODS: To investigate the dose dependent effect of vitamin C on MC3T3-E1 type pre-osteoblast cell predetermined amount of vitamin C was added to the medium and the medium was used for cell culture and cell differentiation. Relative cell viability and cell proliferation were checked to see the effect of vitamin C. Effect of dose dependent gene expression was carried out by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction with osteogenic differentiation specific genes. RESULTS: Cell viability and cell proliferation was increased in all culture time. The pre-osteoblast cells show significantly higher expression of osteoblast formation specific gene alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and osteopontin at a higher dose of vitamin C. CONCLUSION: Higher doses of vitamin C with 50 microg/uL could significantly enhance the cell proliferation.