Effect of F68, F127 and P85 pluronic block copolymers on odontogenic differentiation of human tooth germ stem cells (hTGSCs)

Mesenchymal Stem Cells are non-embryonic adult stem cells, they can differentiate into a variety of tissues, including bone, tooth, cartilage, tendon, muscle and adipose in an optimum conditions. This potential of MSCs can be used in tissue engineering applications such as bone, tooth, skin and cartilage tissue repair. Stem cells isolated from 3rd molar tooth germs as hTGSCs, were recently shown to be pluripotent and these stem cells can be used in tissue engineering as well. Biomaterials are indispensible tools in tissue engineering and among them, pluronics have gained great interest in recent years. Pluronics, also known as ?poloxamers? which consist of hydrophilic poly (ethylene oxide) and hydrophobic poly (propylene oxide) chains are one of the most attractive polymers used as vehicles for therapeutic agents such as drugs, chemicals and growth factors. In this study, we tested the effects of three pluronics F68, F127 and P85 on odontogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from human tooth germ stem cells (hTGSCs) taken from the 3rd molar tooth. The results showed that none of the pluronics used in this study were toxic for the cells except fornthe P85 at high concentration. Long term treatment of P85 can cause toxicity. F68 remarkably increased the cell viability and the differentiation efficiency of MSCs into odontogenic cell types. P85 showed toxic effect for cells during the differentiation process. It was found that F127 has not significantly altered the cell viability and differentiation of MSCs. These data suggest, for the first time, that F68 has a great potential to increase odontogenic differentiation of MSCs which might lead to the development of new tissue engineering strategies for regenerative medicine.