Putative stem cells in human dental pulp with irreversible pulpitis: an exploratory study.
BACKGROUND
Although human dental pulp stem cells isolated from healthy teeth have been extensively characterized, it is unknown whether stem cells also exist in clinically compromised teeth with irreversible pulpitis. Here we explored whether cells retrieved from clinically compromised dental pulp have stem cell-like properties.


METHODS
Pulp cells were isolated from healthy teeth (control group) and from teeth with clinically diagnosed irreversible pulpitis (diseased group). Cell proliferation, stem cell marker STRO-1 expression, and cell odonto-osteogenic differentiation competence were compared.


RESULTS
Cells from the diseased group demonstrated decreased colony formation capacity and a slightly decreased cell proliferation rate, but they had similar STRO-1 expression and exhibited a similar percentage of positive ex vivo osteogenic induction and dentin sialophosphoprotein expression from STRO-1-enriched pulp cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study provides preliminary evidence that clinically compromised dental pulp might contain putative cells with certain stem cell properties. Further characterization of these cells will provide insight regarding whether they could serve as a source of endogenous multipotent cells in tissue regeneration-based dental pulp therapy.
Wang
Zhengyan
Z
Dental Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. zhengyan@umich.edu
Pan
Jian
J
Wright
John T
JT
Bencharit
Sompop
S
Zhang
Shaoping
S
Everett
Eric T
ET
Teixeira
Fabricio B
FB
Preisser
John S
JS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology*; D003810:Dentinogenesis; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D011671:Pulpitis / Q000473:pathology*; D012038:Regeneration; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D055815:Young Adult; D000099311:Dentin Sialophosphoprotein
D000954:Antigens, Surface; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins; D000099311:Dentin Sialophosphoprotein; C513309:DMP1 protein, human; C525591:STRO-1 antigen, human