Scaling-Up of Human Dental Pulp Mesenchymal Cells on Primary Culture

Introduction: Tissue Engineering (TE) aims to bio manufacture human tissues, an endeavor that requires a large number of cells, preferably autologous ones. Typically, an autologous cell source is unable to provide the required amount of cells and it is necessary that such cells be cultured during a prolonged period of time. One of the methodologies used to obtain and expand autologous cells in culture is explants; however, explants are commonly discarded at the moment of the first cell passage. Given the difficulty in obtaining those cell sources, a good alternative would be to reuse the explants and put them back into culture after cell passage. Nevertheless, various modifications have been seen in long-term cell culture, such as modifications of gene expression, and number and amount of proteins.

Objective: To evaluate changes in gene expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) and adhesion molecules (AM) in human mesenchymal dental pulp progenitor cells (hMDPC) culture of reused explants.

Methods: Gene expression of cells derived from second passage reused explants culture was accessed by Real Time PCR array of Human ECM and AM. Results: Twenty-nine genes showed at least a 5-fold change increase or decrease compared to the control group.

Conclusion: Long-term culture frequently induces gene expression changes in ECM or AM. Re using explants is an option to expand the cell source in order to decrease culture time. However, it is necessary to understand, map and control those changes in order to ensure clinical application safety.