Investigation of the comparative gene expression profiles of dental stem cells related to neurogenic regeneration using gene expression omnibus (GEO) database

Neural crest cells give rise tissues and organs of the central and peripheral nervous system as well as parts of dental and peridontal tissues. Thus, it is believed that stem cells located in and around the tooth have high potential for use in regenerative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of use of dental stem cells in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases at molecular biology level transcriptiomic data and using bioinformatics. In this research, the studies from The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and the data obtained from the GEO data sets were analyzed using the Transcriptome Analysis Console (TAC) and STRING-db software. In the analyses, the neurogenic differentiation capacities of dental stem cells were compared with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells. The results of the study showed that dental stem cells had higher expression levels related to the development and function of neuronal structures compared to bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells. It has been determined that genes such as ASPM, SLIT2, PTN and SEMA3A and their related proteins may play a role in these activities. When dental stem cells were evaluated among themselves, no major differences were noted. It was observed that LRRTM2 and WFDC-1 genes and related proteins, which are expressed at higher levels in dental pulp-derived stem cells, are involved in biological processes especially related to synaptic transmission. When dental stem cells were compared with the neural crest cells from which they originated, gene expression profiles were significantly different and the number of genes with similar expression levels were only around 30%. These findings; shows that dental-derived stem cells are more suitable for regenerative treatments of neural structures than bone marrow-derived mesenchymal cells in terms of gene expression profiles. Keywords: Dental-derived stem cells, neural crest cells, neurodegenerative diseases, dental pulp-derived stem cells, transcriptomics