Background Oral pulp tissue contains many undifferentiated mesenchymal cells, which wthhold the capability to differentiate into older cells. by Akt, MAPK or Smad1 signaling. Conclusions Our outcomes indicate that hyaluronan induces odontoblastic differentiation of DPSCs via Compact disc44. This shows that hyaluronan has a crucial function in the induction of odontoblastic differentiation from DPSCs. Our results might help the introduction of brand-new, inexpensive, and effective conventional treatments for oral pulp fix. Electronic supplementary materials The online edition of this content (doi:10.1186/s13287-016-0399-8) contains supplementary materials, which is open to authorized users. dentin matrix proteins-1, hyaluronic acidity … Discussion We originally aimed to research the sort of differentiation induced by Compact disc44 arousal in DPSCs. Our data present that Compact disc44 was expressed in 62 approximately?% of DPSCs which odontoblastic differentiation was marketed by HA-induced arousal of Compact disc44 in DPSCs. Prior studies have recommended that DPSCs possess the to regenerate oral tissues [30], nerve and myoideum tissue [9, 31]. Although oral pulp-derived induced pluripotent stem cells have already been evaluated for make use of in scientific applications [32, 33], and HA arousal of Compact disc44 is very important to differentiation resulting in the creation of odontoblasts, few research have investigated the complete signaling 39012-20-9 manufacture mechanisms working in DPSCs. Low molecular fat HA can induce cell proliferation and induce osteocalcin mRNA appearance within a dose-dependent way in calvarial-derived mesenchymal cells [34]. Nevertheless, others possess reported that high molecular fat HA can induce mineralization of oral pulp tissues and oral pulp cells [35, 36]. Our analysis employed a higher molecular fat HA. Treatment with this high molecular fat HA elevated the percentage of Compact disc44-positive DPSCs from 62?% to 72?% at 5?min posttreatment. Thereafter, cell surface area expression of Compact disc44 dropped to 22?% at 24?h posttreatment (Fig.?1c). On the other hand, Compact disc44 levels entirely cell lysate continued to be unchanged pursuing treatment with HA for either 24?h or 1?week (Fig.?2d and Fig.?7). These results claim that Compact disc44 might change into cells and from the cell surface following HA treatment. Although HA does not induce cell proliferation or 39012-20-9 manufacture affect the cell cycle in DPSCs (Fig.?2), we clearly demonstrated that HA signaling via CD44 is important for odontoblastic differentiation in DPSCs. Interestingly, HA induced activation of Smad1, Akt and Erk1/2, but not beta-catenin. The peak of Akt and Smad1 phosphorylation occurred 30?min after treatment with HA, while the peak of Erk1/2 phosphorylation occurred 5?min after HA treatment. Furthermore, degradation of phosphorylated Erk1/2 did not occur as was the case for Akt and Smad1 phosphorylation (Figs.?4, ?,5,5, and ?and6).6). However, while HA-induced Erk1/2 activation exhibited different characteristics to HA-induced Akt and Smad1 activation, these signaling pathways did not directly promote odontoblastic differentiation in DPSCs. This suggests that there may be another as-yet unexplained signaling mechanism by which HA induces odontoblastic differentiation via CD44. Therefore, our present results and those of previous studies on HA treatment and dental pulp [35, 36] suggest that HA induces odontoblastic differentiation via CD44 signaling in DPSCs. Our findings indicate that the application of HA to dental pulp medicine may be useful for dental pulp capping or tooth regeneration in the future. Despite our best efforts, the mechanisms underlying CD44-induced differentiation of DPSCs to odontoblasts remain unclear, and will require further examination in future studies. Nevertheless, our present study describes an efficient differentiation method F2 to derive odontoblasts from DPSCs. Conclusions HA induces odontoblastic differentiation of DPSCs via CD44, but does not promote cellular proliferation. While HA activates Akt, Smad and MAPK signaling, there 39012-20-9 manufacture is no clear relationship between these signaling pathways and the odontoblastic differentiation of DPSCs. These novel findings further our understanding of DPSC differentiation, and may facilitate advances in dental pulp therapy by enabling efficient induction of odontoblastic differentiation of DPSCs. Acknowledgements In addition, the authors wish to thank Mineko Tomomura PhD and Akito Tomomura PhD from the Division of Biochemistry, Meikai University, for their assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. Funding This investigation was supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI) (grant numbers 23592806, 24791982, 26462854, 26462892, and 26861748), and by research funds from Meikai University School of Dentistry in Japan. Availability of data and materials The authors give endorsement to share these data and materials in publicly available repositories. Authors contributions NU contributed to experimental design, 39012-20-9 manufacture performed the majority of the experiments, data.