Growth factor effects on dental pulp cells

描述(由申请人提供)：由于多种原因，目前人们对牙髓细胞的特性非常感兴趣。首先，在重要的牙髓疗法之后，牙髓细胞通常会死亡。了解这种死亡是如何发生的，以及如何预防，对于提高这些手术的成功率非常重要。其次，牙髓细胞可以分化为成牙本质细胞，并产生修复性牙本质。由于这一特性，使用生长因子刺激成牙本质细胞分化已被认为是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，利用这些细胞重新生长牙髓，甚至整个牙齿的潜力是存在的。然而，在实现生长因子诱导牙髓细胞分化的全部潜力之前，需要更多地了解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。需要检验的假设是，对于涉及暴露牙髓的应用，可以找到生长因子治疗和牙科材料修复的理想组合。实验旨在详细描述已知的多种生长因子对培养的人牙髓细胞生长的影响。将测试与牙髓细胞直接接触的牙科材料的影响，或者可能从其中浸出的物质与牙髓细胞接触的影响，以测试对生长因子处理的细胞的毒性。我们将检测生长因子：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的分化、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以及最终在人类身上更有选择性地测试生长因子提供一个框架。 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牙髓，牙髓细胞通常会死亡，从而导致拔牙或牙髓治疗。作为维持这些细胞活性的一种方法，我们建议研究自然产生的物质，即生长因子对牙髓细胞的影响。

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.