Early Odontogenic Differentiation of Dental Pulp Stem Cells Treated with Nanohydroxyapatite-Silica-Glass Ionomer Cement.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of nanohydroxyapatite-silica-glass ionomer cement (nanoHA-silica-GIC) on the differentiation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) into odontogenic lineage. DPSCs were cultured in complete Minimum Essential Medium Eagle-Alpha Modification (-MEM) with or without nanoHA-silica-GIC extract and conventional glass ionomer cement (cGIC) extract. Odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs was evaluated by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) for odontogenic markers: dentin sialophosphoprotein (), dentin matrix protein 1 (), osteocalcin (), osteopontin (), alkaline phosphatase (), collagen type I (), and runt-related transcription factor 2 () on day 1, 7, 10, 14, and 21, which were normalized to the house keeping gene glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (). Untreated DPSCs were used as a control throughout the study. The expressions of and were higher on days 7 and 10, that of on day 10, those of and on day 14, and that of on day 1; exhibited a time-dependent increase from day 7 to day 14. Despite the above time-dependent variations, the expressions were comparable at a concentration of 6.25 mg/mL between the nanoHA-silica-GIC and cGIC groups. This offers empirical support that nanoHA-silica-GIC plays a role in the odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs.