Characterization of Dental Pulp Stem Cells Response to Bone Substitutes Biomaterials in Dentistry

Bone substitute biomaterials (BSBs) represent a promising alternative to bone autografts, due to their biocompatibility, osteoconduction, slow resorption rates, and the ability to define and maintain volume for bone gain in dentistry. Many biomaterials are tailored to provide structural and biological support for bone regeneration, and allow the migration of bone-forming cells into the bone defect. Neural crest-derived stem cells isolated from human dental pulp (hDPSCs) represent a suitable stem cell source to study the biological effects of BSBs on osteoprogenitor cells involved in the physiological bone regenerative processes. This study aimed to evaluate how three different BSBs affect the stem cell properties, osteogenic differentiation, and inflammatory properties of hDPSCs. Our data highlight that BSBs do not alter cell proliferation and stemness markers expression, nor induce any inflammatory responses. Bone metabolism data show that hDPSCs exposed to the three BSBs distinctively secrete the factors supporting osteoblast activity and osteoclast activity. Our data indicate that (i) hDPSCs are a suitable stem cell source to study the effects of BSBs, and that (ii) the formulation of BSBs may condition the biological properties of stem cells, suggesting their versatile suitability to different dentistry applications.