Purpose: To investigate the effects of inflammatory microenvironment on proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of periodontal ligament cells(PDLCs) in vitro.
Methods: Human PDLCs were isolated and characterized. MTT was used to investigate the proliferation rate of PDLCs under different concentration of lipopolysaccharide（LPS）. The PDLCs' osteogenic differentiation was investigated using real-time PCR and Western blot. The date were statistically analyzed with SPSS 13.0 software package.
Results: Treatment with 0.1 μg/mL LPS increased proliferation of PDLCs and enhanced the expression of osteogenic gene and protein. The proliferation of PDLCs and expression of alkaline phosphatase(ALP), RUNX2, Collagen-I, BMP2 were significantly decreased by 10 μg/mL LPS.
Conclusions: The inflammatory microenvironment (10 μg/mL LPS) inhibits the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of human PDLCs.