Effect of uncontrolled freezing on biological characteristics of human dental pulp stem cells

Human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) hold great promise as a source of adult stem cells for utilization in regenerative medicine. Successful storage and post thaw recovery of DPSCs without loss of function is a key issue for future clinical application. Most of the cryopreservation methods use controlled rate freezing and vapor phase nitrogen to store stem cells. But these methods are both expensive and laborious. In this study, we isolated DPSCs from a patient undergoing impacted mandibular third molar extraction. We adopted eight different methods of cryopreservation at -80 °C for long term storage of the DPSC aliquots. Various parameters like proliferation, cell death, cell cycle, retention of stemness markers and differentiation potential were studied post cryopreservation period of 1 year. We observed successful recovery of stem cells in every method and a significant difference in proliferation potential and cell death between samples stored by different methods. However, post thaw, all cells retained their stemness markers. All DPSCs stored by different methods were able to differentiate into osteoblast like cells, adipocytes and neural cells. Based on these parameters we concluded that uncontrolled freezing at a temperature of -80 °C is as effective as controlled freezing using ethanol vessels and other cryopreservation methods. To the best of our knowledge, our study provides the first proof of concept that long term storage in uncontrolled freezing of cells at -80 °C in 10 % DMSO does not affect the revival capacity of hDPSCs. This implies that DPSCs may be used successfully for tissue engineering and cell based therapeutics even after long term, uncontrolled cryopreservation.