In vitro Chondrogenic Differentiation Potential of Dental Pulu Stem Cells

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the in vitro ability of rat pulp cells to differentiate into the chondrocyte lineage. Applying an in vitro differentiation induction system used in human bone marrow, induction of differentiation into chondrocytes was attempted. We hypothesized that, like bone marrow cells, cells in the pulp have pluripotency, and have reported their ability to differentiate into osteoblasts and nerve cells. We have also reported on the properties of stem cells in the pulp. In this study, we attempted to induce pulp cells to differentiate into chondrocytes. Between the initiation of primary culture and differentiation induction, there were no cells that expressed AGC 1 and COL 2 A 1 in the pulp. Therefore, chondrocytes were shown to be absent from pulp cells. In addition, mRNA expression assay revealed that the expression of AGC 1 was increased about 1.67-fold after differentiation induction compared with before differentiation induction, while the expression of COL 2 A 1was shown to be 1.62-fold higher than before differentiation induction in the mRNA expression assay. The increase in the number of alcian blue-positive cells as well as the increased expression of AGC 1 and COL 2 A 1 in mRNAs after differentiation induction suggests that pulp cells were in the process of differentiating into the chondrocyte lineage. These results suggest that rat pulp cells might have pluripotency. These pulp stem cells with such pluripotency will be highly useful for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the future.