Xu Wenjing, Li Jianqiang, Li Juan, Yang Ji-Jiang, Wang Qing, Liu Bo, Qiu Weiliang
Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China.
Beijing Engineering Research Center for IoT Software and Systems, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China.
Stem Cells Int. 2019 Apr 4;2019:8913287. doi: 10.1155/2019/8913287. eCollection 2019.
Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have the property of self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation so that they have the potential for future regenerative therapy of various diseases. The latest breakthrough in the biology of stem cells and the development of regenerative biology provides an effective strategy for regenerative therapy. However, in the medium promoting differentiation during long-term passage, DPSCs would lose their differentiation capability. Some efforts have been made to find genes influencing human DPSC (hDPSC) differentiation based on hDPSCs isolated from adults. However, hDPSC differentiation is a very complex process, which involves multiple genes and multielement interactions. The purpose of this study is to detect sets of correlated genes (i.e., gene modules) that are associated to hDPSC differentiation at the crown-completed stage of the third molars, by using weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA). Based on the gene expression dataset GSE10444 from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), we identified two significant gene modules: yellow module (742 genes) and salmon module (9 genes). The WEB-based Gene SeT AnaLysis Toolkit showed that the 742 genes in the yellow module were enriched in 59 KEGG pathways (including Wnt signaling pathway), while the 9 genes in the salmon module were enriched in one KEGG pathway (neurotrophin signaling pathway). There were 660 (7) genes upregulated at P10 and 82 (2) genes downregulated at P10 in the yellow (salmon) module. Our results provide new insights into the differentiation capability of hDPSCs.
牙髓干细胞（DPSCs）具有自我更新和多向分化的特性，因此它们具有用于未来各种疾病再生治疗的潜力。干细胞生物学的最新突破和再生生物学的发展为再生治疗提供了一种有效策略。然而，在长期传代过程中促进分化的培养基中，DPSCs会失去其分化能力。基于从成人分离的人牙髓干细胞（hDPSCs），人们已经做出了一些努力来寻找影响hDPSC分化的基因。然而，hDPSC分化是一个非常复杂的过程，涉及多个基因和多元素相互作用。本研究的目的是通过使用加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA）来检测与第三磨牙冠完成阶段hDPSC分化相关的相关基因集（即基因模块）。基于来自基因表达综合数据库（GEO）的基因表达数据集GSE10444，我们鉴定出两个显著的基因模块：黄色模块（742个基因）和鲑鱼模块（9个基因）。基于网络的基因集分析工具包显示，黄色模块中的742个基因富集于59条京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）通路（包括Wnt信号通路），而鲑鱼模块中的9个基因富集于一条KEGG通路（神经营养因子信号通路）。黄色（鲑鱼）模块中在P10时上调的基因有660（7）个，下调的基因有82（2）个。我们的结果为hDPSCs的分化能力提供了新的见解。
