Retinoic Acid Signal Negatively Regulates Osteo/Odontogenic Differentiation of Dental Pulp Stem Cells

Figure 3

BMS 493 enhances osteo/odontogenic differentiation and inhibits proliferation of human DPSCs. (a) ALP activity assay results exhibit enhanced ALP activities in human DPSCs by BMS 493 after osteogenic induction for 7 days. Alizarin red staining (b) and quantitative calcium measurement (c) results show more mineralization nodules in human DPSCs by BMS 493 after osteogenic induction for 14 days. Calcium nodules are observed under a microscope and displayed below (b). (d) CCK8 assays show the proliferation of DPSCs is largely suppressed by BMS 493 after 4-day induction. Real-time RT-PCR results show BMS 493 upregulates the expressions of osteogenesis-related markers ALP (e), OPN (f), OCN (g), and transcription factor OSX (h) in human DPSCs. GAPDH is applied as the internal control. Student’s -test is performed to calculate statistical significance. All error bars mean the SD (). , , , and . Scale bars represent 200 μm (b).

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