Stem Cell Properties of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells

TLDR

The study characterizes the self‑renewal, multi‑lineage differentiation, and clonogenic efficiency of human dental pulp stem cells. The authors evaluated self‑renewal, multi‑lineage differentiation, clonogenic efficiency, and the odontogenic potential of 12 single‑colony‑derived DPSC strains. DPSCs form ectopic dentin and pulp tissue, self‑renew, differentiate into adipocytes and neural‑like cells, and exhibit strain‑dependent odontogenic capacity, with two‑thirds of strains producing abundant dentin.

Abstract

In this study, we characterized the self-renewal capability, multi-lineage differentiation capacity, and clonogenic efficiency of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). DPSCs were capable of forming ectopic dentin and associated pulp tissue in vivo. Stromal-like cells were reestablished in culture from primary DPSC transplants and re-transplanted into immunocompromised mice to generate a dentin-pulp-like tissue, demonstrating their self-renewal capability. DPSCs were also found to be capable of differentiating into adipocytes and neural-like cells. The odontogenic potential of 12 individual single-colony-derived DPSC strains was determined. Two-thirds of the single-colony-derived DPSC strains generated abundant ectopic dentin in vivo, while only a limited amount of dentin was detected in the remaining one-third. These results indicate that single-colony-derived DPSC strains differ from each other with respect to their rate of odontogenesis. Taken together, these results demonstrate that DPSCs possess stem-cell-like qualities, including self-renewal capability and multi-lineage differentiation.