Reduction of connexin 43 expression in aged human dental pulp.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of connexin 43 (CX43) mRNA in young and old human dental pulp tissues to determine the characteristics of CX43 expression.


METHODS
Samples were obtained from human dental pulp of healthy young (17-23 years) and aged (>50 years) subjects. CX43 expression was determined by RT-PCR and by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (QRT-PCR). The threshold cycle (Ct) value, which reflects the amount of PCR, was calculated and the difference between value in the young pulp and that in the aged pulp was statistically analysed.


RESULTS
RT-PCR analysis of human dental pulp tissue detected CX43 mRNA in all the samples. CX43 was abundantly expressed in young adult dental pulp, but expression of CX43 mRNA was dramatically decreased in aged human dental pulp. QRT-PCR analysis also showed the reduced expression of CX43 in aged pulp, and expression of CX43 in young pulp was significantly higher (about 10-fold, P < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U-test).


CONCLUSIONS
Reduction of CX43 expression may be associated with the loss of viability in human dental pulp, and is considered as one characteristic of aged pulp.
Muramatsu
T
T
Oral Health Science Center, Department of Pathology, Tokyo Dental College, Chiba, Japan. tmuramat@tdc.ac.jp
Hamano
H
H
Ogami
K
K
Ohta
K
K
Inoue
T
T
Shimono
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000235:genetics; D018031:Connexin 43 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D018031:Connexin 43; D012333:RNA, Messenger