title: Odontogenic induction of dental stem cells by extracellular matrix-inspired three-dimensional scaffold.
abstract: Currently, root canal therapy is the only clinical treatment available to treat damaged or necrotic dental pulp tissue arising from caries. This treatment results in the loss of tooth vitality. Somatic dental stem cell-based tissue engineering approaches can alleviate this problem by preserving tooth vitality. Dental stem cells are multipotent and under appropriate conditions could be used for dental pulp tissue engineering. Successful use of these cells in pulp repair requires a combination of growth factors and appropriate scaffolds to induce cell differentiation. In this study, we demonstrate the odontogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and the human periodontal ligament stem cells when cultured on a decellularized 3D extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold without the need for exogenous addition of growth factors. Subcutaneous implantation of the ECM scaffolds containing DPSCs showed the formation of dental pulp-like tissue with cells expressing dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and dentin phosphophoryn (DPP). Additionally, we also show that the ECM scaffold can be exploited as a tool to study the extracellular function of multifunctional proteins. These promising results demonstrate the feasibility of developing these biomimetic scaffolds for treatment of dental caries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Sriram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ravindran
authors.forename: Youbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chun-Chieh
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: George
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000166:cytology*; D017886:Durapatite / Q000494:pharmacology; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism*; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D024022:Fibrillar Collagens / Q000378:metabolism; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D009805:Odontogenesis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D010513:Periodontal Ligament / Q000166:cytology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D024022:Fibrillar Collagens; D017886:Durapatite; D002118:Calcium