Responses of the Dental stem cells on a rigid Gel in-vitro

Objectives: little is known about the effect of matrix stiffness on the multipotent stem cells isolated from dental tissues. An example of these cells is the stem cells isolated from human exfoliated tooth (SHED) and immortalized 17iA4 cell line. To optimize this mechanical mediator and direct cellular behavior and fate of these cells for several purposes, the initial characterization of the mechano-sensitivity of these cells is required.
Methods: The two cell types were seeded on tunable Polyacrylamide hydrogel (soft, medium and stiff) adapted from the previously reported protocol to investigate the effects of modulating various substrate stiffness on 1) morphology and proliferation of both cell types, 2) trilineage differentiation of SHED cells and 3) whether this modulation related to Wnt signaling or not
Results: the two dental multipotent cells have showed morphological signs of mechanosensitive response to matrix rigidity with the possibility of no effect on their growth. Furthermore, the multiple differentiation potential of one of these cells, (SHED), can be modulated by mimicking the favorable matrix stiffness of each lineage. Also, for SHED cells and consistent with previous studies in other cell types, Wnt/B-catenin signaling pathway, that have a role in osteogenic/odontogenic differentiation, is increased in a stiffness dependent manner.
Conclusions: These results are significant considerations in designing scaffolds for tissue engineering purposes and for providing dental mechanosensitive platforms for future studies.