Background: Redox signaling and energy metabolism are known to be involved in controlling the balance between self-renewal and proliferation/differentiation of stem cells. In this study we investigated metabolic and redox changes occurring during in vitro human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) osteoblastic (OB) differentiation and tested on them the impact of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling.
Methods: hDPSCs were isolated from dental pulp and subjected to alkaline phosphatase and alizarin red staining, q-RT-PCR, and western blotting analysis of differentiation markers to assess achievement of osteogenic/odontogenic differentiation. Moreover, a combination of metabolic flux analysis and confocal cyto-imaging was used to profile the metabolic phenotype and to evaluate the redox tone of hDPSCs.
Results: In differentiating hDPSCs we observed the down-regulation of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes expression since the early phase of the process, confirmed by metabolic flux analysis, and a reduction of the basal intracellular peroxide level in its later phase. In addition, dampened glycolysis was observed, thereby indicating a lower energy-generating phenotype in differentiating hDPSCs. Treatment with the ROS scavenger Trolox, applied in the early-middle phases of the process, markedly delayed OB differentiation of hDPSCs assessed as ALP activity, Runx2 expression, mineralization capacity, expression of stemness and osteoblast marker genes (Nanog, Lin28, Dspp, Ocn) and activation of ERK1/2. In addition, the antioxidant partly prevented the inhibitory effect on cell metabolism observed following osteogenic induction.
Conclusions: Altogether these results provided evidence that redox signaling, likely mediated by peroxide species, influenced the stepwise osteogenic expansion/differentiation of hDPSCs and contributed to shape its accompanying metabolic phenotype changes thus improving their efficiency in bone regeneration and repair.
Keywords: Antioxidants; Cell bioenergetics; Human dental pulp stem cells; Osteogenesis/odontogenesis; Redox signaling.
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