Novel bioactive glass-based cement with LDN-193189: Insights from dental pulp cell interaction

Bioceramic materials like bioactive glass (BG) are widely used in endodontics due to their bioactivity and osteoinductive properties. This study characterized fluorescence-labeled porcine immortalized dental pulp cells (DsRed-PPU7 cells) in contact with BG-based cement (BG-C) to advance the development of novel BG-C formulations. BG-C discs were prepared on titanium discs, and DsRed-PPU7 cells were cultured on them. The effects of bone morphogenetic protein-2, transforming growth factor beta-1, and their inhibitors (LDN-193189 and SB-431542) on cell proliferation and mineralization were investigated. Additionally, a new BG-C disc containing LDN-193189 (LDN-BG-C) was developed and tested. The LDN-193189 significantly promoted cell proliferation and mineralization. On LDN-BG-C discs, the formation of petal-like spherical precipitates with hydroxyapatite-like structures was observed, aligning with the cell localization sites. We propose that BG-C discs containing LDN-193189 induces the differentiation of dental pulp cells into odontoblast, and promotes the formation of dentin-like crystals.