Characterization of dental pulp stem cells isolated from a patient diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome

Stem cells isolated from patients with rare diseases are important to elucidate their pathogeny and mechanisms to enable regenerative therapy. However, the mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration using patient-derived dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are unclear. In this study, we investigated the levels of mRNA and protein expression related to cellular differentiation of Crouzon syndrome patient-derived DPSCs (CS-DPSCs) with a Gly338Arg fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 mutation. Multipotency-related gene expression levels were equivalent in both healthy donor DPSCs and CS-DPSCs. CS-DPSCs showed higher osteocalcin (OCN) expression than healthy donor DPSCs. CS-DPSCs showed a lower increase in the rate of OCN expression among phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-treated cells than healthy donor DPSCs compared with untreated control cells. CS-DPSCs showed a lower phosphorylation rate of p38 and p44/42 in PMA-treated cells than healthy donor DPSCs compared with untreated control cells. These results demonstrate that CS-DPSCs have higher OCN expression and lower PMA stimulation-responsiveness than healthy donor DPSCs.