Mucus of Achatina fulica stimulates mineralization and inflammatoryresponse in dental pulp cells

Abstract

IntroductionDental and oral diseases are major concerns in Thailand, affecting the country's health system. Everyone, at any age, is at risk of losing teeth. Tooth loss can lead to many health problems, including difficulty chewing, which increases the risk of poor nutrition. In addition, tooth loss leaves a large gap, leading to plaque accumulation that can cause periodontal disease. Moreover, the remaining teeth start to shift in an attempt to fill in the gap, leading to misalignment of teeth. Losing teeth may also affect personality, including a loss of confidence that may affect work or social activities. Restoration, with dentures or dental implants, is needed to replace the missing teeth.Current research has focused on dental and bone implants capable of promoting cell differentiation Xavier Acasigua et al., 2014;Naddeo et al., 2015). Cells isolated from tooth pulp contain odontoblasts, fibroblasts, immune cells, and undifferentiated mesenchymal cells called dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). These findings may lead to restoration using dental pulp cells (DPCs), together with dental implants, to replace lost teeth. Various research groups have proposed the possibility of producing bioactive dental implants by adding natural products, such as natural hydroxyapatite/ zircon (Karamian et al., 2014), plant products (Varoni et al., 2012), or herbal extracts (Wang et al., 2012), to dental materials.Snails have been used in medicine since ancient times. Until the late 19th century, the synthetic peptide ziconotide (SNXIII), which is found in the venom of Conus magus, was used as a painkiller following approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (Bonnemain, 2005). According to reports, snails contain several medically useful substances, including mytimacinlike antimicrobial peptides, which are exclusively found in the mucus of giant African snails (Zhong et al., 2013). In addition, lectin, which acts as an antimicrobial, is also present in the mucus of giant African snails (Ito et al., 2011). High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the amount of allantoin and glycolic Abstract: Dental pulp tissue contains stem cells that can be isolated and used for regenerative medicine in tooth restoration or autologous transplantation. The aim of this study was to observe the mineralization and gene expression in dental pulp cells (DPCs) following treatment with snail mucus. Snail mucus was collected from adult Achatina fulica and processed as a dry powder by the freeze-drying technique. The mucus powder was dissolved in a culture medium at a concentration of 15 µg/mL. DPCs were prepared by the outgrowth technique and cultured in a 6-well plate at a density of 5 × 10 4 cells per well. A mucus-supplemented medium (15 µg/mL) was added to each well. Cell culture was maintained for 3 weeks. The results of Alizarin Red S staining indicated that the DPCs cultured in a medium supplemented with snail mucus showed a higher number of mineralized nodules as compared with the control group cultured in a norm...

Reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts into neural lineage cells using biomaterials

“…Primary PDL cells and APCs were obtained as previously reported. 21 Caries-free third molar that was extracted for orthodontic treatment purposes was used. PDL cells were derived from 2 different donors (N1 and N2).…”

PI3K/Akt Signaling Involved with Osteoinductive Effects of Achatina fulica Mucus

“…Mucus of A. fulica was prepared as previously described [9]. Briefly, the snail mucus samples were collected from adult A. fulica by mild intermittent irritation in an ultrasonicating bath for 5 rounds of 15 sec at 30°C.…”

“…A previous study, by Harti et al, found that a combination of A. fulica mucus and chitosan (at a ratio of 1:2) was effective in wound healing in mice [8]. Recently, Kantawong et al (2016) demonstrated that A. fulica mucus enhanced mineralization in dental pulp cells (DPCs) [9]. Although, the DPCs contained mesenchymal stem cell population, the major population were fibroblasts which also responded to the induction so the expressions of OPN and OCN were slightly increased.…”

Antimicrobial properties of terrestrial snail and slug mucus

“…Another study evidenced that snail mucus can be used, potentially, in regenerating and repairing bone and teeth, because it increased the expression of osteopontin and NF-κB and induced the expression of some inflammatory genes in dental pulp cells [21].…”