Long-term culture of cells derived from human odontoma

Article information
Long-term culture of human odontoma-derived cells with a Rho kinase inhibitor.
Uzawa K, Kasamatsu A, Saito T, Takahara T, Minakawa Y, Koike K, Yamatoji M, Nakashima D, Higo M, Sakamoto Y, Shiiba M, Tanzawa H.
Exp Cell Res. 2016 Sep 10;347(1):232-40. PMID: 27514999

Overview
Although odontoma is a rare tumour, this carcinoma is the most common of odontogenic tumours.

However, there have been no reports of stable long-term culture of odontoma-derived cells to date. Thus, it would be clinically valuable to clarify the development of normal tooth and the occurrence of odontogenic tumours using long-term culturable cells.

The authors performed long-term expansion of odontoma-derived cells in the presence of Y-27632, a selective inhibitor of Rho kinase.

In the cells derived from odontoma supplemented with Y-27632, cell proliferation continued steadily even after approximately 1 month of culture, whereas in the control (no inhibitor) cells, proliferation stagnated after approximately 2 weeks.

In addition, cells grown in the presence of Y-27632 exhibited remarkable enhancement of expression of odontogenic epithelial differentiation markers, including dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP).

Finally, using Atelocollagen Permeable Membrane, the authors performed co-culturing of cells grown in the presence of Y-27632 with human skin fibroblasts or with dental pulp-derived cells. A marked increase in DSPP expression was observed only for the cells co-cultured with dental pulp-derived cells.