LncRNA FTX/OCT4/miR-122-5p orchestrates self-renewal and lineage commitment of human dental pulp stem cells by directly targeting FOXO3

LncRNA FTX overexpression exerts a suppressive effect on the transcriptional expression of miR-122-5p, which subsequently activates FOXO3 and thereby impedes cell proliferation as well as multilineage differentiation capacity of hDPSCs. Moreover, a novel lncRNA FTX-OCT4-miR-122-5p interaction pathway was discovered. These findings shed light on two novel regulatory mechanisms - lncRNA FTX/OCT4/miR-122-5p regulation and lncRNA FTX/miR-122-5p/FOXO3 regulation - that unravel crucial signaling pathways governing the pluripotency of hDPSCs, potentially offering promising RNA-based therapeutic strategies and gene-editing targets for dentin regeneration.