Abstract:

Objective To observe the differential ability of dental pulp stem cell（DPSC） and ectoblast mesenchyme stem cell（EMSC） that were cultured with tooth germ cell（TGC） as the tooth germ microenvironment. Methods The TGC of 4-day old rat was used as the tooth germ microenvironment. The BrdU marked and determined DPSC and EMSC were cultured with the TGC respectively. The expression of cell surface antigen dentin sialoprotein（DSP） and alkaline phosphatase（ALP） activity were determined with double marker immunofluorescence. The differential ability of DPSC and EMSC were determined by the immunohistochemistry and image analysis in the tooth germ microenvironment. Results The transformation efficiency of DSP positive cell in the EMSC co-culture group was higher than that in the DPSC co-culture group（P<0.05）. The transformation efficiency in the co-culture groups was higher than that in the non co-culture group after 7 days by the image analysis of immunohistochemistry（P<0.05）. The ALP activity in the co-culture groups increased after 3 and 7 days. The ALP activity in the EMSC co-culture group was higher than that in the DPSC co-culture group. Conclusion DPSC and EMSC cultured with TGC as the tooth germ microenvironment can be induced to differentiate into odontoblast. The ability of EMSC is higher than that of DPSC.

Key words: tooth germ cell, dental pulp stem cell, ectoblast mesenchyme stem cell, cell differentiation