In vitro histomorphometric comparison of dental pulp tissue in different teeth

Marytere Guerrero-Jiménez; Geovanny I Nic-Can; Nelly Castro-Linares; Fernando Javier Aguilar-Ayala; Michel Canul-Chan; Rafael A Rojas-Herrera; Ricardo Peñaloza-Cuevas; Beatriz A Rodas-Junco

doi:10.7717/peerj.8212

In vitro histomorphometric comparison of dental pulp tissue in different teeth

PeerJ. 2019 Dec 6:7:e8212. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8212. eCollection 2019.

Affiliations

¹ Laboratorio Traslacional de Células Troncales de la Cavidad Bucal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México.
² CONACYT-Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México.
³ Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Orizaba, Veracruz, México.
⁴ Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Dental pulp (DP) represents an accessible and valuable source promising of stem cells for clinical application. However, there are some disadvantages associated with the isolation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), which include the size and weight of the pulp tissue needed to yield sufficient cells for culturing in vitro. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare in vitro histomorphometry of DP from permanent (premolars, third molar), supernumerary and deciduous teeth of patients between 5 and 25 years old with regards to weight, length, width and the cell density in the four regions of the DP in order to obtain quantitative parameters in a tissue that represents a valuable source of stem cells.

Methods: DPs were obtained from 10 central incisors deciduous, 20 permanent teeth (10 premolars, 10 third molars) and 10 supernumeraries (six mesiodents and four inferior premolar shapes). The pulps were carefully removed, and the entire tissue was weighed. The pulp length and the width were measured with a digital Vernier caliper. The cellular density analysis was performed according to the four regions of the DP (coronal, cervical, medial and apical) in histological slides using photography and the ImageJ^® program for quantification.

Results: The Pearson correlation test revealed that DP weight among different types of teeth is correlated with age in male patients. A significant positive correlation was noted between length and width of the DP with age in both genders. The mean DP weight for supernumerary and third molar teeth was greater than deciduous and premolar teeth. Finally, the histological analysis showed that the coronal and apical portions of DP in supernumerary and premolar teeth have the highest cell density.

Conclusions: The DP of supernumerary teeth has quantitatively the best morphometric parameters and cell density comparable with the quality of DP obtained from deciduous teeth.

Keywords: Dental pulp; Histomorphometric; Stem cell; Supernumerary teeth.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Faculty of Dentistry, Autonomous University of Yucatan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.