Dental Tissue Engineering on Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Based on Tooth Development

Our long-term objective is to isolate and characteristics human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) derived from human third molar pulp. We demonstrated the successful use of tissue engineering approaches to generate small, bioengineered tooth crowns from harvested pig and rat postnatal dental stem cells (DSCs). To facilitate characterizations of human DSCs, we have developed a novel radiographic staging system to accurately correlate human third molar tooth developmental stage with anticipated harvested DSC yield. Another aim was to verify the expression with dentin sialoprotein (DSPP), dentin sialoprotein (DSP), dentin matrixprotein 1 (DMP-1) and vimentin. For characterisation, proliferation capacity, phenotypic properties, and differentiation characteristics were utilised. Stem cells isolated from hNDP were analysed by flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. Thus, both EMPs are important during hDPSCs proliferation. During cytodifferentiation, EMPs are essential for the complete differentiation of odontoblasts by up-regulating the expression of DSPP, DSP, DMP-1 and vimentin. Stimulation of these cells by EMPs significantly increases alkaline phosphatase(ALP) activity. ALP activity was expressed as OD 405 nm/mg of protein A increase was observed in ALP activity of hDPSCs during the culturing of EMPs. According to the differentiation and proliferation potential of HDPSC was shown. We conclude that radiographic developmental staging can be used to accurately assess the utility of harvested human teeth for future dental tissue engineering applications.