Characterization of human dental pulp cells grown in chemically defined serum-free medium

Dental pulp cells obtained from several donors proliferated actively in a serum-free medium STK2. The growth rate of dental pulp cells from most donors was higher in the serum-free medium than that in a medium containing 10% serum. DNA microarray analyses showed that gene expression profile of dental pulp cells grown in the serum-free medium was similar to that of cells grown in a medium containing 10% serum. However, several genes related to cell proliferation were up-regulated in dental pulp cells grown in the serum-free medium. Three dental pulp cell lines were cultured in DMEM/10% FBS or serum-free medium for 7 days. Total RNA was extracted from these cells, and DNA microarray analysis was performed to compare the genes expressed in dental pulp cells grown in DMEM/10% FBS (three samples) to those in cells grown in serum-free medium (three samples).