A mineralizing rat dental pulp cell subline expressing collagen type I and dentin sialoprotein-phosphophoryn transcripts.

A mineralizing rat dental pulp cell subclone, termed M2H4, was selected from single-cell cloning of the rat dental pulp cell line RPC-C2A by screening confluent single-cell cultures for their ability to undergo mineralization. To induce mineralization, confluent single-cell cultures were treated for 8 d with ascorbic acid followed by the addition of inorganic phosphate to a final concentration of 4 mM for an additional 3 d. Confluent M2H4 subclones were shown by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy to form collagen type I fibrils. Furthermore, using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, this subclone was found to be capable of expressing dentin sialoprotein-phosphophoryn (DSP-PP) transcripts, an odontoblast-specific marker. Thus, this newly identified mineralizing rat M2H4 subclone possesses odontoblast-like characteristics and can serve as an in vitro model for examining the role of DSP and PP in the formation of mineralized dentin.