Exploring the molecular disorder and dysfunction mechanism of human dental pulp cells under hypoxia by comprehensive multivariate analysis

Abstract

Dental pulp cells (DPCs) are multipotent cells, which can differentiate into various tissues and have the potential to treat many diseases. However, little is known about the molecular disorder mechanism. To explore the mechanism of molecular disorders and dysfunction of DPCs under hypoxia, we investigated the molecular effects of two hypoxic time lengths on DPCs. Differential analysis, protein interaction network (PPI), enrichment analysis and coupling analysis were further synthesized to identify human dental pulp cell dysfunction modules under hypoxic conditions. Based on the module aggregation of 579 genes, 13 dental pulp cell dysfunction modules were obtained. Importantly, we found that up to 12 modules were significantly involved in positive regulation of neurogenesis, positive regulation of nervous system development. Based on the predictive analysis of regulators, we identified a series of ncRNAs (including CRNDE, MALAT1, microRNA-140-5p, microRNA-300 and microRNA-30a-5p) and transcription factors (including E2F1). Based on the comprehensive functional module analysis, we identified the dysfunction module of human dental pulp cells (HDPCs) under hypoxia. The results suggest that nerve regulation plays an important role in regulating the dysfunction module of DPCs. These prominent pivotal regulators in the module were used as an important part of the molecular disorders of DPCs, may be an important part of the subnetwork of the manipulation module and affect the molecular dysregulation mechanism of DPCs. This study provides new directions and potential targets for further research.

Keywords: Differential analysis; Modular networks; Pluripotent stem cells.