Effect of Luteolin and Apigenin on the Expression of Oct-4, Sox2, and c-Myc in Dental Pulp Cells with In Vitro Culture

Figure 3

Effect of luteolin and apigenin on the multilineage differentiation capability of DPCs. The immunofluorescent staining revealed that DSPP (A1) and LPL (B1) were strongly expressed in DPCs without luteolin/apigenin treatment after 21 d of odontogenic and adipogenic induction, mainly located in the nucleus of DPCs. Collagen type II (C1) was mainly located in the cytoplasm of DPCs without luteolin/apigenin treatment after 21 d of chondrogenic induction, whereas, for the DPCs with luteolin/apigenin treatment, only LPL ((B2), (B3)) showed weak expression in the nucleus of DPCs after 21 d of adipogenic induction, albeit DSPP ((A2), (A3)) and collagen type II ((C2), (C3)) were barely found in DPCs. Real-time PCR indicated that mRNA expression of osteogenic markers (ALP, DSPP), adipogenic markers (PPARγ2, LPL), and chondrogenic markers (collagen type II) was significantly downregulated in luteolin and apigenin groups after 21 d induction towards multilineages compared with control group ((d)–(h)).

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