Metformin promotes osteogenic differentiation and protects against oxidative stress-induced damage in periodontal ligament stem cells via activation of the Akt/Nrf2 signaling pathway.

This study found that low concentrations of metformin did not affect cell proliferation but did inhibit adipogenic differentiation and promote osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs. This positive effect was associated with activation of Akt signaling by metformin. Moreover, applying metformin as either a pretreatment or co-treatment could reduce the amount of reactive oxygen species, enhance antioxidant capacity, and rescue the cell viability and osteogenic differentiation that were negatively affected by H2O2-induced oxidative stress in PDLSCs. In addition, metformin was found to activate the Nrf2 signaling pathway in PDLSCs, and knockdown of Nrf2 by siRNA impaired the protective effect of metformin. Taken together, these results indicate that metformin not only promotes osteogenic differentiation of PDLSCs, but also protects PDLSCs against oxidative stress-induced damage, suggesting that metformin could be potentially useful in promoting PDLSC-based bone regeneration in the treatment of periodontitis.
PMID: 31715142 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Experimental Cell Research - November 8, 2019 Category: Cytology Authors: Jia L, Xiong Y, Zhang W, Ma X, Xu X Tags: Exp Cell Res Source Type: research