Vascularity and Angiogenic Signaling in the Dentine-Pulp Complex of Immature and Mature Permanent Teeth

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to examine the protein and gene expression of vascular endothelial growthfactor (VEGF) and angiopoietins-1 and 2 in tissue from healthy and inflamed dental pulps.Methods: Permanent teeth with pulps diagnosed as healthy or reversible pulpitis were used for immunohistochemistry (IHC) and gene expression experiments. For IHC, a whole pulp tissue was excavated from thepulp chamber, and it was formalin-fixed and processed for routine IHC with angiogenic markers anti-VEGF,anti-Ang1, and anti-Ang2. Staining was visualized with diaminobenzidine (DAB), and examined using lightmicroscopy. The distribution of markers in healthy and inflamed pulps was qualitatively and quantitativelyanalyzed. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT qPCR) was used to ascertain the gene expression levels of ANGPT1, ANGPT2, and TEK in the presence of inflammation. Statistical analysis was performedusing the Mann–Whitney test with the statistical significance level set at 0.05.Results: There was increased protein and mRNA expression of VEGF and Ang-1 markers in inflamed pulpsamples as compared with that in the healthy pulp tissue. IHC demonstrated intense expression of the VEGFprotein on endothelial cells (EC) and some non-ECs, and there was significantly more staining on ECs associated with inflamed tissue (P