Effects of miR-629-5p on odontoblast differentiation and target gene TEAD4 expression of dental pulp stem cells

Abstract: TEAD4 is a member of the TEA domain (TEAD) family of transcription factors. It plays a key regulatory role in embryonic development, tissue homeostasis and cancer progression. Its expression is related to the regulation of a variety of inflammations. MicroRNA can regulate the expression of target genes and play an important role in various physiological and pathological processes. In view of the important role of TEAD4 and microRNA-629-5p (miR-629-5p) in inflammation, and based on the findings of bioinformatics research, we selected miR-629-5p as the focus of our study. In inflammatory dental pulp, we found that the expression of miR-629-5p was increased, while the expression of TEAD4 was decreased. We used Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a stimulator of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) to simulate the inflammatory environment of dental pulp. The mineralization ability of LPS-stimulated DPSCs was significantly inhibited, while the level of miR-629-5p increased and the level of TEAD4 decreased. Inhibition of miR-629-5p can reverse the odontogenic defects of DPSCs treated with LPS. In addition, the expression of miR-629-5p in DPSCs was negatively correlated with the expression of TEAD4. In conclusion, miR-629-5p can inhibit the odontogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells and the mechanism may be related to its role in downregulation of TEAD4 expression.