Abstract
<h3>Objectives</h3> To assess age-related changes in metabolic pathways of dental follicles associated with unerupted/impacted mandibular third molars from young and adult individuals. <h3>Study Design</h3> Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded dental follicle tissue samples from individuals younger than age 16 (<i>n</i> = 13) and older than age 26 (<i>n</i> = 7) were selected. Samples were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics. Multivariate and univariate analyses were conducted. The prediction of altered metabolic pathways was performed by mummichog and gene set enrichment analysis approaches. <h3>Results</h3> Dental follicles from young and adult individuals showed differences in pathways related to C21-steroid hormone biosynthesis, bile acid biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, androgen and estrogen biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, and lipoate metabolism. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Metabolic pathway differences related to aging, some of which have been previously linked to aging phenotype acquisition, were observed between our experimental groups. Our findings support that, similar to other human tissues, dental follicles show alterations at a metabolic level with aging, which can pave the way for further studies on oral pathology, oral biology, and physiology.
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