Gene expression signatures of melatonin-treated dental papilla cells during odontoblastic differentiation

To further reveal the regulatory mechanism of melatoin-mediated odontoblastic differentiation during tooth development, we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with the potential to modulate melatonin-induced odontoblastic differentiation. Rat dental papilla cells were primary cultured from PN1-3 tooth germ tissue, and treated with melatonin at the concentration of 10-8M for 3 days along with odontoblastic differentiation induction medium (OS). Current microarray analysis generally profiled a total of 181 upregulated genes and 580 downregulated genes between two groups. Cultured with odontogenic differentiation induction medium(OS), rat dental papilla cells were treated with 0 or 10-8M melatonin, gene expression was measured at day 3.