Effects of low level laser therapy associated to a BMP4 incorporated scaffold on dental pulp stem-cells differentiation and migration. An in vitro study.

Abstract

The maintenance of tooth vitality in the oral cavity is a great challenge of minimal invasive dentistry. Because of low remodeling ability of dental pulp tissue, particularly in mature teeth, conservative treatments of this tissue are prone to fail, especially when performed in consequence of carious process. Conventional endodontic treatment is based on total removal of dental pulp tissue and its substitution for synthetic materials, which turns tooth lifeless and brittle. Currently, no restorative material is able to totally mimic physical and chemical characteristics of health dental tissue. By the other side, cell therapy has been showing great potential to regenerate dentin-pulp complex. The amount of dentin and pulp tissue formed by tissue engineering associating dental pulp stem cells far exceeds the amount that would be generated in situ during the lifetime of an organism. Scaffolds, morphogenes and stem cells are the main components of tissue engineering researches and, recently, low level laser therapy (LLLT) has been considered a promising extra component, which is able to modulate cell functions for tissue regeneration. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of LLLT combined to a poloxamer hydrogels scaffold with incorporation of BMP4 on the behavior of dental pulp stem cells. Cell adhesion, proliferation and migration in the biomaterial, as well as identification of proteins related to stem cell differentiation into odontoblasts will be evaluated using or not LLLT.