Molecular Biological Comparison of Dental Pulp- and Apical Papilla-Derived Stem Cells

Abstract

Both the dental pulp and the apical papilla represent a promising source of mesenchymal stem cells for regenerative endodontic protocols. The aim of this study was to outline molecular biological conformities and differences between dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) and stem cells from the apical papilla (SCAP). Thus, cells were isolated from the pulp and the apical papilla of an extracted molar and analyzed for mesenchymal stem cell markers as well as multi-lineage differentiation. During induced osteogenic differentiation, viability, proliferation, and wound healing assays were performed, and secreted signaling molecules were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Transcriptome-wide gene expression was profiled by microarrays and validated by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). Gene regulation was evaluated in the context of culture parameters and functionality. Both cell types expressed mesenchymal stem cell markers and were able to enter various lineages. DPSC and SCAP showed no significant differences in cell viability, proliferation, or migration; however, variations were observed in the profile of secreted molecules. Transcriptome analysis revealed the most significant gene regulation during the differentiation period, and 13 biomarkers were identified whose regulation was essential for both cell types. DPSC and SCAP share many features and their differentiation follows similar patterns. From a molecular biological perspective, both seem to be equally suitable for dental pulp tissue engineering.

Effect of Biosilicate® Addition on Physical–Mechanical and Biological Properties of Dental Glass Ionomer Cements

“…The study used stem cells from Apical Papilla (hSCAPs), which were donated by the University of Texas Health Science Center Dental School, San Antonio, TX, USA. These cells share common features with dental pulp stem cells (hDPSC) [ 39 ] and exhibit similar cell viability and proliferation under the same culture conditions [ 40 , 41 ]. Thus, the Promega CellTox TM Green assay was performed to assess the cytotoxicity of GICs on hSCAPs (RP-89 cell line).…”

Exploring the impact of oral bacteria remnants on stem cells from the Apical papilla: mineralization potential and inflammatory response

“…Another important marker for evaluating osteogenic/odontogenic potential is calcium deposition by cells, which indicates the production of calcified matrix and mineralization and is usually estimated by Alizarin Red ( Puchtler et al., 1969 ; Lievremont et al., 1982 ; Stanford et al., 1995 ). Multiple studies show that SCAP exhibit strong mineralization potential when induced with osteogenic differentiation media ( Sonoyama et al., 2006 ; Bakopoulou et al., 2011 ; Pettersson et al., 2017 ; Smeda et al., 2022 ). In our study, we could not observe a statistically significant result of UV-C–inactivated bacterial influence on SCAPs production of bone-like nodules, evaluated by Alizarin Red assay.…”

Efficient bone regeneration of BMP9-stimulated human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs) in decellularized bone matrix (DBM) constructs to model maxillofacial intrabony defect repair

“…The key points in the development of novel tissue engineering therapy are to determine the suitable sources and doses of seed cells needed [58]. For the regeneration of maxillofacial bone defect, PDLSCs, DPSCs and SCAPs could be perfectly efficient candidates and are popularly studied hDMSCs that possess various differential abilities [59][60][61][62][63]. All three hDMSCs have been analyzed for osteogenic differentiation.…”