Innate molecular signature of stem cells from carious teeth influences differentiation toward endodermal endpoint

The aim of this study was to characterize cells from carious teeth (DPSCs-CT) in terms of proliferation, mesoderm differentiation and gene expression profile as compared to DPSCs. Up-regulated genes in DPSCs-CT was detected via qPCR array and downstream trans-differentiation toward hepatocyte-like cells was performed. Additionally, qPCR array was employed to describe the genes pertaining to EMT and their possible mechanism. Despite basic characterizations favoured DPSCs, peculiarly DPSCs-CT had expressed a tremendous expression of hepatocyte growth factor gene (HGF; > 20 fold). To ascertain the notion that DPSCs-CT can be utilized for generating hepatic-like cells, we further de-toured the cells into hepatic lineage. As expected, DPSCs-CT expressed higher (>3 fold) hepatic markers such as SOX17, HNF3β, GATA4, AFP, TAT, TDO, AAT and ALB at both gene and protein levels. Improved homing capacity of DPSCs-CT and overall liver function were observed in bile duct ligation (BDL) treated rats. Mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) profiling was further conducted to elucidate the role HGF in promoting differentiation of DPSCs-CT and surprisingly, more than 40 genes related to MET were highly expressed in DPSCs-CT. To conclude, this information highlighted the potential of DPSCs-CT to differentiate into putative hepatocyte and subsequent usage for liver regeneration.