Activation of human dental pulp progenitor/stem cells in response to odontoblast injury.

In restorative dentistry, whilst moderate carious lesion treatment does not significantly compromise odontoblast cell survival, deep cavity preparation may lead to a partial death of these cells. However, newly formed odontoblast-like cells can replace the necrotic odontoblasts and secrete a reparative dentine matrix. Although several lines of evidence strongly suggest the presence of resting progenitor or stem cells in the dental pulp, little is known about the activation and migration of these cells in response to injury. Human immature third molars extracted for orthodontic reasons were used in this work to study the activation of progenitor/stem cells and their migration after deep cavity preparation involving in pulpal exposure using 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine labelling (BrdU). After incubation for 1 day, the BrdU was localised to the nuclei of cells in the perivascular area. The BrdU-immunolabelling exhibited a gradient. It was strong in the blood vessels surrounding the pulpal cavity and decreased in those away from the cavity. After incubation for 2 weeks, labelled cells were seen in the vicinity of the cavity. At 4 weeks, the immunolabelling was localised to the cavity area only. Control teeth without cavities or with shallow dentine cavities did not show any perivascular labelling after culture. These results clearly demonstrate that perivascular progenitor/stem cells can proliferate in response to odontoblast injury. They also show that these proliferating cells can migrate to the pulpal injury site in their tissue of origin simulating the situation in vivo.