Abstract
Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) from beagle dogs had the characteristics of multi-directional differentiation and had great application potential in tissue engineering and cell regenerative medicine. In this study, we analysed the odontogenesis and neuronal differentiation characteristics of PDLSCs in vitro. Results showed that the calcined tooth powder (CTP) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) additives could induce the PDLSCs into odontogenesis differentiation; besides, the immunofluorescence staining identified that the high dosage calcined tooth powder (400 μg/mL) significantly facilitated the odontogenesis associated with BMP4 expression. While the nutritional factor (L-glutamine, NGF (nerve growth factor), bFGF (basic fibroblast growth factor), IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) and EGF (epidermal growth factor)) additives were prior to induce the PDLSCs into neuronal differentiation. Simultaneously, PDLSCs had high proliferation ability with the different supplemented additives. Importantly, the Western blot results also proved the BMP4 and SMAD1 proteins were highly expressed in the induced odontoblast, while the SOX1, NCAM1, GFAP and VEGFA proteins were all obviously expressed in the induced neurons. Hence, PDLSCs had characteristics of both odontogenesis and neuronal differentiation.