A role for adipokines in cranial development?

Abstract

During skeletal development, condensation of multipotential mesenchymal cells to differentiate towards the various cell types is an important process. Such processes include the formation of periodontal ligament cells (PDL cells), ameloblast and odontoblast cells. Even though the terminally differentiated cells differ in phenotype, they exhibit distinct similarities in the pattern of their secreted factors, which indicate a relationship between these cells. One of these common factors may be the adipokines; leptin, adiponectin and resistin, which all are involved in bone formation. Because both bone and dental tissue are mineralizing and have cells of mesenchymal origin, we are interested in examine if these adipokines also take part in dental development; are expressed in human pulp cells, PDL cells and/or odontoblasts and if so, try to identify their role. Pulp cells and PDL cells were incubated with dexametasone (Dex) and Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD), respectively, and mRNA and cell culture medium were harvested after 1, 3, 7, and 14 days. The cell medium from pulp cells and PDL cells were analyzed using Luminex. The findings concluded that all the adipokines are expressed in PDL and pulp cells, and the protein expression was enhanced by either EMD or Dex, compared to the untreated control. Differentiation of pulp cells into odontoblasts, by Dex, enhanced the expression of adiponectin and leptin, whereas resistin was unaffected. EMD, known to stimulate periodontal repair, enhanced the secretion of resistin from both pulp and PDL cells.