FT-IR microscopic analysis on human dental pulp stem cells

Stem cells are a promising source in a wide range of medical fields, included bone tissue regeneration. In this study, we investigated the molecular structure of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), during their differentiation towards the osteoblastic phenotype. DPSCs, easily achievable even from human young adults, were isolated from dental pulp of included third molar teeth and then cultured with appropriate medium to induce osteoblast differentiation. The FT-IR analysis of undifferentiated and differentiated DPSCs well pin-pointed biological changes during the osteogenic differentiation, above all in the Amide I, II and III vibrational modes as well as in the phosphate stretching vibrations. The spectroscopic study was supported by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the expression of specific osteoblastic markers, such as type I collagen (Coll-I), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OCN) and runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2).