Mussel Adhesive Protein Inspired Coatings on Mineral Trioxide Aggregate for Stimulating Odontogenic Differentiation

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of the mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) powder coated with polydopamine (PDA) in hard tissue regeneration by investigating the hydration, physicochemical properties, and biological performances of the hydrated cements.
Methods: MTA powder was mixed in DA solution and stirred for 12 h. The PDA-coated MTA powder was mixed with ddH2O and hydrated at 37°C with 100% relative humidity for 24 h. The physicochemical and in vitro bioactivity of cements, also the proliferation and odontogenic differentiation of hDPCs were evaluated.
Results: The setting of the MTA cements were significantly shortened without jeopardizing the mechanical properties while PDA coated on them. In addition, our data showed that PDA-coated MTA significantly enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation, and also induced the odontogenesis differentiation of cells.
Conclusions: Our data proved the dopamine is the effective coating material to enhance human dental pulp cell long-term culture and odontogenic differentiation on PDA-MTA materials. It will be the important direction for future researches in developing new biomaterials for dental applications.