Figure 7.

Piezo1 channel knockdown by shRNA enhances the mineralization levels. (A) Human odontoblasts transfected by shRNA including a vector specific for human Piezo1 (right; shRNA-Piezo1 transfected) or including an empty vector control (left; shRNA-Control transfected) were cultured for 28days in mineralization medium, and subjected to the Alizarin red staining (red indicative of calcium deposition). (B) The mineralization levels in the cells of shRNA-Control transfected (upper column) and shRNA-Piezo1 transfected (lower column), assessed by Alizarin red staining. The mineralization levels were 5.95±0.36 I/I₀ in the shRNA-Control transfected cells, and 8.30±0.59 I/I₀ in the shRNA-Piezo1 transfected cells. Each column indicates the mean±SE from three experiments. Statistically significant differences between columns (solid line) are indicated by asterisks. ^*p<0.05.