Figure 3.

The treatment of MDP potentiates osteoclastogenic cytokine expression in human dental pulp cells. (A, B) The effects of MDP on the mRNA expression of osteoclastogenic cytokine in HDPCs were examined by RT-PCR analysis as described in Materials & Methods. (C) The osteoclastogenic effects of conditioned medium (CM) from MDP-treated HDPCs were evaluated by an in vitro osteoclast differentiation system. Human dental pulp cells were cultured in the presence of indicated concentrations of MDP for 14 days, and CM was prepared as described in Materials & Methods. At the end of culture, cells were stained for TRAP activity. (D) The numbers of osteoclasts/well were counted. Similar data were obtained from 3 independent experiments. *Statistically significant difference vs. control, p < .05.