Comparative gene expression profile analysis between native human odontoblasts and pulp tissue

Knowledge of differential gene expression between pulp and odontoblasts might give insight to the regulation of these spatially related but functionally diverse cells. Our aim was large-scale analysis of expression profiles of native human pulp tissue and odontoblasts, and search for genes expressed only in odontoblasts. Keywords: comparative expression analysis Microarray using Affymetrix HGU133A (for pulp) and HGU133plus 2.0 array (for odontoblasts) was performed to pooled pulp and odontoblasts of native human third molars. Microarray analysis’ repeatability was estimated by comparing our pulp sample with expression profiles of two pulp samples downloaded from the GEO-database. The genes expressed only in our pulp sample or in odontoblasts were divided into categories, and the expression of selected odontoblast-specific genes of extracellular matrix (ECM) organization and biogenesis category was confirmed with RT-PCR and Western blot.