Effect of dentine matrix proteins on human endometrial adult stem-like cells: in vitro regeneration of odontoblasts cells

Abstract

Objective: Human endometrium has enormous regenerative capacity due to the presence of endometrial stem cells. The present study sought to assess the possibility of differentiation of these cells into odontoblast-like cells by in vitro induction.

Methods: Endometrial stem-like cells were obtained using enzymatic digestion of the biopsy samples of the endometrium after hysterectomy and cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) which contained dentine non-collagenous proteins (dNCPs). The results were evaluated using the following assays: analysis of morphology, enzymatic assay for measuring alkaline phosphatase activity, Alizarin Red staining to detect in vitro formation of mineralized nodules, immunofluorescence for detection of dentine sialoprotein (DSP) and dentine-matrix protein (DMP1), and Western blotting for DMP1 expression.

Results: Following induction, endometrial stem-like cells demonstrated high alkaline phosphatase activity, and expression of DSP and DMP1 confirmed the odontoblast phenotype. DMP1 level increased in samples treated with dNCPs.

Conclusions: Study results indicated that odontoblastic differentiation of endometrial stem cells can be induced by extracellular matrix proteins (e.g. dNCPs). The capacity of endometrial stem-like cells to differentiate into odontoblast-like cells under specific conditions gives new insights into the mechanism of odontogenesis and highlights the potential of such approaches for further research on dental tissue regeneration.