Taurine Augments Telomerase Activity and Promotes Chondrogenesis in Dental Pulp Stem Cells

Abstract

Background: Stem cell therapy has become an advanced and state-of-the-art procedure to regenerate lost tissues of the human body. Cartilage repair is a challenging task in which stem cells find potential application. One of the important biologic modifiers that can cause chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells is taurine. However, taurine has not been investigated for its effects on dental pulp derived stem cell (DPSC) chondrogenic differentiation. Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate if taurine administration to DPSCs heralds chondrogenic differentiation as ascertained by expression of SOX9, COL2A1, ACAN, ELN, and COMP. The study also investigated if the differentiated cells synthesized glycosaminoglycans, a marker of cartilage formation. The study also aimed to assess proliferative activity of the cells after taurine administration by measuring the hTERT gene and protein expression. Materials and methods: DPSCs were obtained from a molecular biology laboratory and characterization of stem cell markers was done by flow cytometry. The cells were subjected to a MTT assay using various concentrations of taurine. Following this, hTERT gene and protein estimation was done in the control, telomerase inhibitor treated DPSC (TI-III), 10 μM taurine treated DPSC, and TI-III + 10 μM taurine treated DPSCs. A polymerase chain reaction was done to assess gene expression of SOX9, COL2A1, ACAN, ELN, and COMP genes and glycosaminoglycans were estimated in control cells, Induced DPSCs, induced and TI-III treated DPSCs, and 10 μM taurine treated DPSCs. Results: DPSCs expressed CD73, CD90, and CD105 and did not express CD34, CD45, and HLA-DR, which demonstrated that they were mesenchymal stem cells. The MTT assay revealed that various concentrations of taurine did not affect the cell viability of DPSCs. A concentration of 10 μM of taurine was used for further assays. With regard to the hTERT gene and protein expression, the taurine treated cells expressed the highest levels that were statistically significant compared to the other groups. Taurine was also found to restore hTERT expression in telomerase inhibitor treated cells. With regard to chondrogenesis related genes, taurine administration significantly increased the expression of SOX9, COL2A1, ACAN, and ELN genes in DPSCs and caused a significant increase in glycosaminoglycan production by the cells. Conclusions: Taurine can be regarded a biologic modifier that can significantly augment chondrogenic differentiation of DPSCs and can find potential applications in regenerative medicine in the area of cartilage regeneration.

Strategies to Convert Cells into Hyaline Cartilage: Magic Spells for Adult Stem Cells

“…The chondrogenesis-related genes were significantly up-regulated and GAG synthesis was increased in the DPSC monolayer on day 21 when the chondrogenic medium was accompanied by taurine. Elastin expression in the culture was also observed [ 194 ]. To improve the chondrogenic differentiation of the human DPSCs, an extract of sonicated lactic acid bacteria was added to the chondrogenic medium, including ITS, dexamethasone and TGFβ1 [ 195 ].…”

HIF-1α Is Associated with Resistance to Hypoxia-Induced Apoptosis in Ameloblastoma

“…Hypoxia has been documented to be an important phenomenon that also promotes osteogenesis and osteogenic differentiation of stem cells [ 32 , 33 ]. In this way, a type of inductive therapy could be implemented through natural or present biomolecules in the organism that promote the stimulation or enhancement of these regenerative events, as suggested by recent studies [ 33 , 34 ]; in the future, this could counteract the high probability of recurrence of this pathology.…”

Non-Thermal Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Conditioned Root Dentin Promotes Attraction and Attachment of Primary Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells in Real-Time Ex Vivo

“…Exogenous NO promoted DPSC differentiation into odontoblasts and induced tertiary dentin formation in rats [34]. Therefore, NTAPP's effects on differentiation could be expanded to guide endocrine/paracrine conditioned cells toward various osteogenic/chondrogenic lineages [35,36]. Long term observation using HTM will be required to trace these subcellular changes during differentiation.…”