Mineralized Tissue Formation by Bone Morphogenetic Protein-7–transfected Pulp Stem Cells

Abstract

Introduction Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) is a well-established agent to induce bone and dentin formation. Little is understood until now whether BMP-7 could be used to genetically modify human dental pulp stem cells for tissue engineering applications. Methods This study was to determine the feasibility of mineralized tissue formation from human dental pulp-derived stem cells (DPSCs) transfected with adenoviral-mediated human BMP-7 gene through in vitro and in vivo evaluations. Results In vitro results of alkaline phosphatase, calcium content, and real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that BMP-7–transfected cells had the ability to differentiate towards the odontoblast phenotype and produce a calcified extracellular matrix. Transfected cell were seeded onto a porous ceramic scaffold and implanted subcutaneously in mice. Samples were retrieved after 4 and 8 weeks for histology evaluation. The results indicated that only the cultures with BMP-7 gene transfection showed obvious hard-tissue generation. Conclusions Our data suggest that adenovirus-mediated BMP-7 expression can induce odontogenic differentiation of human DPSCs and show effectively mineralized tissue formation in vivo, which may provide support for gene therapy candidate of BMP-7 in dental tissue engineering.