Cationic surface charge effect on proliferation and protein production of human dental pulp stem cells cultured on diethylaminoethyl-modified cellulose porous beads

Abstract Human adult dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are a type of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Recently, DPSCs have been proposed as a new MSC source for treating immune-mediated, inflammatory, and degenerative diseases via cell-based therapy. Hence, large-scale industrial production of the required cell number will be necessary. In this study, to investigate the cationic surface charge effect on DPSC proliferation, we fabricated two types of 2-diethylaminoethyl -modified cellulose porous beads (CPB-DEAE) with different ion exchange capacities. The cationic surface charge effect increased with increase in DPSC proliferation rate for the ion exchange capacity of 0.55–1.82 meq/g. However, the DPSC proliferation rate decreased at 2.50 meq/g. Thus, the optimal ion exchange capacity was determined to be 1.82 meq/g for DPSC proliferation. Additionally, the total amount of protein produced from the DPSCs on the CPB-DEAE microcarriers was higher than that produced under the conventional monolayer culture conditions. Furthermore, the hepatocyte growth factor, which is one of the anti-inflammatory growth factors, was produced from the DPSCs on the CPB-DEAE microcarriers. Finally, the DPSCs were confirmed to maintain their proliferative and multidifferentiation ability after culture on the CPB-DEAE microcarriers. CPB-DEAE microcarriers have the potential to be used for large-scale MSC expansion and protein production.