Applications of an Athymic nude mouse model of nonhealing critical-sized calvarial defects

Given recent advances in cell-based therapies, regenerative medicine offers a new paradigm to the field of reconstructive surgery. While numerous studies have studied osteoprogenitor cells from mice, few have explored the biology of human cells in the setting of osteogenesis in an equally rigorous manner. This study proposes a nude mouse model of critical-sized calvarial defects to study the in vivo biology of human osteoprogenitor cells. While several studies have implanted human osteoprogenitor cells in vivo in various animal models, few have documented the appropriate controls or conditions necessary to support the potential to translate benchtop findings into clinical applications. We propose in this study that the nude mouse critical-sized calvarial defect model will be valuable with increasing investigations of human osteoprogenitor cells.