β-blocker Effects On Mesenchymal Stem Cells Derived From Periodontal Ligament

Objectives: β-adrenergic receptor have been well identified in the mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and it shows to associate with various MSC activity. The use of β-agonist tended to stimulate MSC proliferation and migration, while β-blocker revealed the improvement of bone density in patients. However, little is known about the effects of β-blocker to regulate MSC activity, which could be favored in pharmacology and regenerative medicine. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the role of β-blocker on MSC proliferation, migration and osteogenic differentiation.
Methods: Propranolol at concentration 0.01-10µM was used to treat MSC derived from human periodontal ligament. MTT and trans-well assay were used to observe cell proliferation and migration respectively. Osteogenic differentiation were evaluated through observing alkaline phosphatase activity using p-nitrophenyl phosphate at day 7 and 14, and detecting calcium deposition via alizarin red staining at day 28.
Results: The result showed that propranolol has no significant effects on MSC proliferation, while the MSC migration was hindered starting from 0.01 µM propranolol. Meanwhile, the treatment of propranolol showed to improve osteogenic differentiation of MSC in a dose dependent manner with highest ALP activity at day 7 and greatest calcium deposition at day 28 after stimulation with a concentration of 10 µM propranolol.
Conclusions: In conclusion, our study primarily showed that propranolol, the β-blocker, was unlikely involved with MSC proliferation but migration and osteogenic differentiation.