Osteoblasts can induce dental pulp stem cells to undergo osteogenic differentiation.

Recent studies have shown that, in numerous species, systemically administered bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells undergo site-specific differentiation. This suggests that osteoblasts, by means of cytokine secretion, may promote dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) to undergo osteogenesis. The objective of this study was to assess the potential synergistic interaction effect of osteoblasts on DPSCs for promotion of osteogenesis. Stem cells, derived from dental pulp of healthy human donors, were co-cultured with calvaria osteoblasts using a culture insert system. The proliferation rate, calcium deposition, osteogenic-related gene expression of induced DPSCs, including Runx-2, bone sialoprotein, osteocalcin and collagen-1, were assayed using MTT, Alizarin Red S staining and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, respectively. Co-cultured DPSCs had the highest rate of proliferation compared with those cultured in absence of osteoblasts. The morphology and ultrastructure of DPSCs in the co-cultures showed improvement, with co-cultured DPSCs becoming more osteoblast-like as compared with DPSCs cultured alone, and the mineralization potential of co-cultured DPSCs was enhanced compared with DPSCs cultured alone. Furthermore, osteogenic-related genes were significantly over-expressed in co-cultured DPSCs after osteogenic induction. The results demonstrate that DPSCs successfully differentiate towards osteoblasts and that the paracrine interaction of osteoblasts is likely to contribute to DPSC differentiation. It is believed that this study demonstrates certain useful applications for DPSCs in bone tissue engineering.