Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, Busan, 49315, Republic of Korea.
College of Dentistry, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021 Mar 12;544:52-59. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.01.059. Epub 2021 Jan 29.
Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) can differentiate into diverse cell lineages, including odontogenic cells that are responsible for dentin formation, which is important in pulp repair and tooth regeneration. While glycolysis plays a central role in various cellular activities in both physiological and pathological conditions, its role and regulation in odontogenic differentiation are unknown. Here, we show that aerobic glycolysis is induced during odontoblastic differentiation from human DPSCs. Importantly, we demonstrate that during odontoblastic differentiation, protein expression levels of phosphofructokinase 1 muscle isoform (PFKM) and PFK2, but not other glycolytic enzymes, are mainly upregulated by AKT activation, resulting in increased total PFK enzyme activity. Increased PFK activity is essential to enhance aerobic glycolysis, which plays an important role in the odontoblastic differentiation of human DPSCs. These findings underscore that PFK activation-induced aerobic glycolysis accompanies, and participates in, human DPSCs differentiation into odontogenic lineage, and could play a role in the regulation of dental pulp repair.
牙髓干细胞（DPSCs）可以分化为多种细胞谱系，包括牙源性细胞，其负责牙本质的形成，这对于牙髓修复和牙齿再生很重要。虽然糖酵解在生理和病理条件下的各种细胞活动中起着核心作用，但它在牙源性分化中的作用和调节尚不清楚。在这里，我们显示出有氧糖酵解在人牙髓干细胞的成牙本质分化过程中被诱导。重要的是，我们证明在成牙本质分化过程中，磷酸果糖激酶 1 肌肉同工型（PFKM）和 PFK2 的蛋白表达水平主要通过 AKT 激活而上调，导致总 PFK 酶活性增加。增加的 PFK 活性对于增强有氧糖酵解至关重要，有氧糖酵解在人牙髓干细胞的成牙本质分化中起着重要作用。这些发现强调了 PFK 激活诱导的有氧糖酵解伴随着并参与了人牙髓干细胞向牙源性谱系的分化，并可能在牙髓修复的调节中发挥作用。
