Abstract
Stem cells isolated from patients with rare diseases are important to elucidate their pathogeny and mechanisms to enable regenerative therapy. However, the mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration using patient-derived dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are unclear. In this study, we investigated the levels of mRNA and protein expression related to cellular differentiation of Crouzon syndrome patient-derived DPSCs (CS-DPSCs) with a Gly338Arg fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 mutation. Multipotency-related gene expression levels were equivalent in both healthy donor DPSCs and CS-DPSCs. CS-DPSCs showed higher osteocalcin (OCN) expression than healthy donor DPSCs. CS-DPSCs showed a lower increase in the rate of OCN expression among phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-treated cells than healthy donor DPSCs compared with untreated control cells. CS-DPSCs showed a lower phosphorylation rate of p38 and p44/42 in PMA-treated cells than healthy donor DPSCs compared with untreated control cells. These results demonstrate that CS-DPSCs have higher OCN expression and lower PMA stimulation-responsiveness than healthy donor DPSCs.