XIX National Congress and VI International of the Spanish Society of Conservative Dentistry

17-19, May 2012

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Meeting Abstract

Sponsors: Sociedad Española de Odontología Conservadora (SEOC)

- Oral Presentation 10

TITLE: Expression of leptin in normal human dental pulp.

AUTHORS

Sanchez Dominguez, Benito¹

1.-Facultad de Odontología de Sevilla

SOURCE: Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2012 August 1;17(Supplement2):S10.

* doi:10.4317/medoral.17643794

http://dx.doi.org/10.4317/medoral.17643794

ABSTRACT

Introduction.The adipocyte-derived hormone leptin has been shown to regulate the innate and adaptive immune responses. This study aims to investigate the expression of leptin in healthy human dental pulp and to discuss its possible involvement in pulpal inflammatory and immune responses.Methodology.Fourteen pulp samples were obtained from freshly extracted human third molars. Leptin expression was determined by Westernblot. Total protein levels were determined by the bicinchoninic acid method using bovine serum albumin as standard. 50 µg protein were loaded in each lane. We added SDS-stop buffer containing 100 mM of DTT to the pulp tissue samples followed by boiling for 5 min. Samples were then resolved by 15% SDS-PAGE and electrophoretically transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes.The bands obtained in the blots were scanned and analyzed by the PCBAS 2.0 program. Relative optical density of the different bands was normalized by the corresponding intensity of the tubulin immunoblot in each individual experiment.Results.Western blot analysis revealed the presence of a protein with at an apparent molecular weight of ~16 kDa in human dental pulp, which corresponds to the estimated molecular weight of leptin. All dental pulp samples expressed leptin. Conclusions.For the first time, the presence of leptin in human dental pulp tissues has been demonstrated. The expression of leptin in human dental pulp showed in the present study suggests that this protein could modulate pulpal immune and inflammatory responses. Further investigations must be carried out to elucidate which cell type express leptin in human dental pulp.

KEYWORDS

Leptin, human dental pulp.