Growth factor effects on dental pulp cells

描述（由申请人提供）：由于许多原因，目前对牙髓细胞的性质有很大的兴趣。首先，牙髓细胞通常在活髓治疗后死亡。了解这种死亡是如何发生的以及如何预防它对于提高这些手术的成功率非常重要。第二，牙髓细胞可以分化为成牙本质细胞并产生修复性牙本质。由于这种性质，已经提出使用生长因子刺激成牙本质细胞分化作为在活髓治疗后使用氢氧化钙刺激修复性牙本质形成的替代或辅助治疗。第三，利用这些细胞再生牙髓甚至整个牙齿的潜力。然而，生长因子在牙髓细胞增殖和分化中的作用，以及生长因子如何改变牙髓细胞对牙科材料的反应，需要更深入的了解，才能充分发挥生长因子诱导牙髓细胞分化的潜力。待检验的假设是，生长因子治疗和牙科材料修复的理想组合可用于涉及暴露牙髓的应用。设计实验以详细表征已知对培养物中的人牙髓细胞生长有影响的多种生长因子的作用。将测试与牙髓细胞直接接触的牙科材料，或从中浸出物质并与牙髓细胞接触的牙科材料对生长因子处理细胞的毒性。我们将测试生长因子：骨形态发生肽-2，4，6（BMP-2，4，6）、表皮生长因子（EGF）、碱性成纤维细胞生长因子（bFGF）、肝细胞生长因子（HGF）和转化生长因子-21，3（TGF-21，3）对牙髓细胞的影响，以确定它们是否改变细胞分化、复制和对牙科材料毒性的敏感性。这些研究提供的信息将为在体内并最终在人体内对生长因子进行更有选择性的测试提供一个框架。 公共卫生相关性：当牙髓暴露时，无论是由于创伤还是快速进展的携带，牙髓细胞通常会死亡，导致拔牙或牙髓治疗。作为维持这些细胞活力的方法，我们建议研究称为生长因子的天然物质对牙髓细胞的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For a number of reasons there is currently a great deal of interest in the properties of dental pulp cells. First, pulp cells often die following vital pulp therapies. Understanding how this death occurs and how it may be prevented is important for improving the success rate of these procedures. Second, dental pulp cells can differentiate into odontoblasts and produce reparative dentin. Because of this property the use of growth factors to stimulate odontoblast differentiation has been proposed as a replacement, or adjunct therapy, to the use of calcium hydroxide in stimulating reparative dentin formation following vital pulp therapy. Third, the potential exists to use these cells to re-grow dental pulp, or even entire teeth. However, a greater understanding of the role of growth factors in the proliferation and differentiation of pulp cells, as well as how the growth factors alter the pulp cell response to dental materials, will be required before the full potential of growth factor induced pulp cell differentiation can be achieved. The hypothesis to be tested is that an ideal combination of growth factor treatment and dental material restoration can be found for applications involving exposed dental pulp. Experiments are designed to characterize in detail the effects of multiple growth factors known to have effects on human dental pulp cell growth in culture. The effects of dental materials that come in direct contact with pulp cells, or from which substances may be leached and come in contact with pulp cells, will be tested for toxicity on the growth factor treated cells. We will test the effects of the growth factors: bone morphogenic peptide-2,4,6 (BMP-2,4,6), epidermal growth factor (EGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and transforming growth factor-21,3 (TGF- 21,3) on dental pulp cells to determine if they alter the cell differentiation, replication, and sensitivity to the toxicity of dental materials. The information provided by these studies will provide a framework for more selective testing of growth factors in vivo and eventually in humans. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: When dental pulp is exposed, whether due to trauma or rapidly progressing carries, the pulp cells often die leading to either extraction or endodontic therapy. As a method of maintaining the viability of these cells we are proposing studying the effects of naturally occurring substances called growth factors on dental pulp cells.