The induction of cellular senescence in dental follicle cells inhibits the osteogenic differentiation

Dental stem cells such as human dental follicle cells (DFCs) have opened new promising treatment alternatives for today's dental health issues such as periodontal tissue regeneration. However, cellular senescence represents a restricting factor to cultured stem cells, resulting in limited lifespan and reduced cell differentiation potential. Therefore, this study evaluated if and how DFCs exhibit features of cellular senescence after being expanded in cell culture. The cell proliferation of DFCs decreased, while the cell size increased during prolonged cell culture. Moreover, DFCs expressed the senescence-associated beta-galactosidase after a prolonged cell culture. The onset of senescence inhibited both the induction of osteoblast markers RUNX2 and osteopontin and the biomineralization of DFCs after stimulation of the osteogenic differentiation. In conclusion, we showed that a prolonged cell culture induces cellular senescence and inhibits the osteogenic differentiation in DFCs