Behaviour of dental pulp stem cells on different types of innovative mesoporous and nanoporous silicon scaffolds with different functionalizations of the surfaces

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are stem cells found in the dental pulp. The ability of DPSCs to differentiate towards odontoblastic and osteoblastic phenotype was reported first in the literature, then in the following years, numerous studies on odontogenesis were carried out, starting from mesenchymal stem cells isolated from tissues of dental and oral origin. The aim of this research was to evaluate the behaviour of DPSCs grown on silicon nanoporous and mesoporous matrices and differentiated towards the osteogenic phenotype, but also to investigate the use of DPSCs in pilot studies focused on the biological compatibility of innovative dental biomaterials. Twenty-eight silicon samples were created with standardized procedures. These scaffolds were divided into samples made of silicon bulk, nanoporous silicon, mesoporous silicon, nanoporous silicon functionalized with (3-Aminopropyl) Trimethoxysilane (APTMS) and methanol (MeOH), nanoporous silicon functionalized with (3-Aminopropyl) Trimethoxysilane (APTMS)/toluene, mesoporous silicon functionalized with (3-Aminopropyl) Trimethoxysilane (APTMS) and methanol (MeOH) andmesoporous silicon functionalized with (3-Aminopropyl) Trimethoxysilane (APTMS)/toluene. DPSC proliferation on the tested silicon scaffolds was analyzed at 3 and 5 days. The assay showed that DPSCs proliferated better on mesoporous scaffolds functionalized with APTMS/toluene compared to a silicon one. These results show that the functionalization of silicon scaffold with APTMS/toluene supports the growth of DPSCs and could be used for future applications in tissue engineering.