Donor Age-Related Biological Properties of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Change in Nanostructured Scaffolds

The aim of the present work is to study how biological properties, such as proliferation and commitment ability, of human adult dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) relate to the age of the donor. Human dental pulps were extracted from molars of healthy adult subjects aged >16 to >66 years. DPSCs were isolated and cultured in the presence of osteogenic, neurogenic, or vasculogenic differentiation medium. Proliferation ability was evaluated by determining doubling time, and commitment ability was evaluated by gene expression and morphological analyses for tissue-specific markers. The results confirm a well-defined proliferative ability for each donor age group at an early in vitro passage (p2). DPSCs from younger donors (up to 35 years) maintain this ability in long-term cultures (p8). Stem cells of all age donor groups maintain their commitment ability during in vitro culture. In vivo tests on the critical size defect repair process confirmed that DPSCs of all donor ages are a potent tool for bone tissue regeneration when mixed with 3D nanostructured scaffolds.