Regulation of tenascin expression in cultured rat dental pulp cells

Tenascin (TN) is a glycoprotein of extracellular matrix abundantly present in embryonic mesenchymal tissues. Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and retinoic acid (RA) are important regulators of dentinogenesis. Dental pulp cells have the capacity to differentiate into odontoblast-like cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of growth factors on TN expression and adhesive function using rat clonal dental pulp cells, RPC-C2A. Analyses of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting revealed that RPC-C2A cells expressed TN molecules and that TGF-beta1, HGF, and RA increased expression of TN at the mRNA and protein level, while bFGF and EGF showed a weak effect. An adhesion assay revealed that treatment with TGF-beta1, HGF, and RA induced a marked reduction of cell attachment to fibronectin (FN)-coated surfaces, whereas there was no change with bFGF and EGF. Functional blocking of growth factor-stimulated TN protein by pretreating cells with anti-TN antibodies restored cell attachment to control levels. These findings suggest that TGF-beta1, HGF, and RA may regulate pulpal cell adhesion to FN-coated surfaces and that this effect is mediated by TN.