Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine and College of Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Cell Physiol. 2010 Oct;225(1):140-51. doi: 10.1002/jcp.22206.
Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are clonogenic, self-renewing, and multi-potential DPSCs capable of differentiating into osteoblasts. In this study, primary cell cultures were obtained from human dental pulp tissue of developing third molars, and flow cytometry was used to sort the subpopulation of DPSCs with STRO-1 and CD146 double-positive expression (denoted "DPSCs"). It was noted that DPSCs exhibited superior clonogenic potential and osteogenic differentiation capability than the dental pulp cell subpopulation with STRO-1 and CD146 double-negative expression (denoted DPCs). Furthermore, a low concentration (0.005 mg/ml) of exogenous glucosamine (GlcN) was effective in promoting the early osteogenic differentiation of DPSCs through the transforming growth factor-beta receptor (TGF-betar) type I and Smads signal pathways, which upregulated the Runt-related transcription factor 2/core-binding factor alpha1 (Runx2/Cbfa1) and alkaline phosphatase at both the mRNA and protein levels. In the presence of osteogenic supplements, GlcN-treated DPSCs produced more mineralized-matrix deposition than did the untreated groups. Taken together, this study demonstrates the capacity of GlcN to promote the osteogenic differentiation of human DPSCs, and the underlying mechanism involves a TGF-betar-dependent Smad signal pathway.
牙髓干细胞（DPSCs）是克隆形成、自我更新和多能的 DPSCs，能够分化为成骨细胞。在这项研究中，从正在发育的第三磨牙的人牙髓组织中获得了原代细胞培养物，并使用流式细胞术对 STRO-1 和 CD146 双阳性表达的 DPSCs 亚群（表示为“DPSCs”）进行分选。值得注意的是，与 STRO-1 和 CD146 双阴性表达（表示为 DPCs）的牙髓细胞亚群相比，DPSCs 表现出更高的克隆形成潜力和成骨分化能力。此外，低浓度（0.005 mg/ml）的外源性氨基葡萄糖（GlcN）通过转化生长因子-β受体（TGF-βR）I 型和 Smads 信号通路有效促进 DPSCs 的早期成骨分化，上调 Runt 相关转录因子 2/核心结合因子α1（Runx2/Cbfa1）和碱性磷酸酶在 mRNA 和蛋白质水平上。在成骨补充剂存在的情况下，用 GlcN 处理的 DPSCs 产生的矿化基质沉积比未处理组多。综上所述，本研究表明 GlcN 能够促进人 DPSCs 的成骨分化，其潜在机制涉及 TGF-βR 依赖性 Smad 信号通路。
