Donor Age-Related Biological Properties of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Change in Nanostructured Scaffolds

TLDR

The study investigates how donor age influences the proliferation and differentiation potential of human dental pulp stem cells. DPSCs were isolated from molars of healthy adults aged 16 to >66 years, cultured in osteogenic, neurogenic, or vasculogenic media, and assessed for proliferation by doubling time and for commitment by gene expression and morphology. Results show that each age group has distinct proliferative capacity at early passage, younger donors retain this capacity through passage 8, all groups maintain commitment, and all ages support bone regeneration in vivo when combined with 3D nanostructured scaffolds.

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to study how biological properties, such as proliferation and commitment ability, of human adult dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) relate to the age of the donor. Human dental pulps were extracted from molars of healthy adult subjects aged 16 to >66 years. DPSCs were isolated and cultured in the presence of osteogenic, neurogenic, or vasculogenic differentiation medium. Proliferation ability was evaluated by determining doubling time, and commitment ability was evaluated by gene expression and morphological analyses for tissue-specific markers. The results confirm a well-defined proliferative ability for each donor age group at an early in vitro passage (p2). DPSCs from younger donors (up to 35 years) maintain this ability in long-term cultures (p8). Stem cells of all age donor groups maintain their commitment ability during in vitro culture. In vivo tests on the critical size defect repair process confirmed that DPSCs of all donor ages are a potent tool for bone tissue regeneration when mixed with 3D nanostructured scaffolds.