Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have excellent proliferative properties, mineralization potential and can be easily obtained from third molar teeth. Recently, many studies have focused on isolation and differentiation of DPSCs. In our study, we focused on biological properties of non-differentiated DPSCs in comparison with osteogenic differentiated cells from DPSCs. We analyzed morphology as well as mineralization potential using three varied osteogenic differentiation media. After fifteen days of differentiation, calcium deposit production was observed in all three osteogenic differentiation media. However, only one osteogenic medium, without animal serum supplement, showed rapid and strong calcification-OsteoMAX-XF™ Differentiation Medium. Therefore, we examined specific surface markers, and gene and protein expression of cells differentiated in this osteogenic medium, and compared them to non-differentiated DPSCs. We proved a decrease in expression of CD9 and CD90 mesenchymal stem cell surface markers, as well as downregulation in the expression of pluripotency genes (NANOG and OCT-4) and increased levels of expression in osteogenic genes (ALP, BSP, OCN and RUNX2). Moreover, osteogenic proteins, such as BSP and OCN, were only produced in differentiated cells. Our findings confirm that carefully selected differentiation conditions for stem cells are essential for their translation into future clinical applications.
Keywords: dental pulp stem cells; differentiation; osteogenesis; regenerative medicine.