Postnatal stem/progenitor cells derived from the dental pulp of adult chimpanzee

Pei-Hsun Cheng¹^,2 , Brooke Snyder¹^,2 , Dimitri Fillos¹^,3^,4 , Chris C Ibegbu¹^,3^,4 , Anderson Hsien-Cheng Huang⁷ and Anthony WS Chan¹^,2^,5^,6

¹Neuroscience Division, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, USA

²Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

³Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

⁴Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, USA

⁵Genetics and Molecular Biology Program, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

⁶Neuroscience Program, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

⁷Grace Dental Clinic, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, PRoC

author email corresponding author email

BMC Cell Biology 2008, 9:20doi:10.1186/1471-2121-9-20


Published:	22 April 2008

Abstract

Background

Chimpanzee dental pulp stem/stromal cells (ChDPSCs) are very similar to human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hBMSCs) as demonstrated by the expression pattern of cell surface markers and their multipotent differentiation capability.

Results

ChDPSCs were isolated from an incisor and a canine of a forty-seven year old female chimpanzee. A homogenous population of ChDPSCs was established in early culture at a high proliferation rate and verified by the expression pattern of thirteen cell surface markers. The ChDPSCs are multipotent and were capable of differentiating into osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic lineages under appropriate in vitro culture conditions. ChDPSCs also express stem cell (Sox-2, Nanog, Rex-1, Oct-4) and osteogenic (Osteonectin, osteocalcin, osteopontin) markers, which is comparable to reported results of rhesus monkey BMSCs (rBMSCs), hBMSCs and hDPSCs. Although ChDPSCs vigorously proliferated during the initial phase and gradually decreased in subsequent passages, the telomere length indicated that telomerase activity was not significantly reduced.

Conclusion

These results demonstrate that ChDPSCs can be efficiently isolated from post-mortem teeth of adult chimpanzees and are multipotent. Due to the almost identical genome composition of humans and chimpanzees, there is an emergent need for defining the new role of chimpanzee modeling in comparative medicine. Teeth are easy to recover at necropsy and easy to preserve prior to the retrieval of dental pulp for stem/stromal cells isolation. Therefore, the establishment of ChDPSCs would preserve and maximize the applications of such a unique and invaluable animal model, and could advance the understanding of cellular functions and differentiation control of adult stem cells in higher primates.