Xiaorui Wei,1 Shidian Ran,1 Xingrui Yan,1 Jindie Huang,1 Linyu Xue,1 Tong-Chuan He,2,3 Hongmei Zhang,1 Si Wu1 

1The Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering of Higher Education, Chongqing Municipal Health Commission Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 2Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, The University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA; 3Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Diagnostic Medicine, and the Affiliated Hospitals of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Hongmei Zhang, The Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering of Higher Education, Chongqing Municipal Health Commission Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China, Email hmzhang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn Si Wu, The Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering of Higher Education, Chongqing Municipal Health Commission Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China, Email wusialyssa@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn

Abstract: Pulpitis is an inflammatory disease occurs in the pulp tissues. Continuous development of pulpitis can lead to apical periodontitis and seriously damage the function of teeth, affecting the oral health and daily life of patients. Pyroptosis, alternatively termed inflammatory necrosis, is a type of programmed cell death that is characterized by the swelling of cells until the cell membrane is broken. The GSDM family of proteins can be activated by a variety of pathways, which can lead to the puncture of cell membrane, inducing the release of cellular contents and inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-18 to activate a strong inflammatory response. Pyroptosis in dental pulp may be an important direction to find new targets for pulpal inflammation prevention and treatment, which deserves further study. In this article, we reviewed the activation mechanism and potential role of pyroptosis in the progression of pulpitis, along with the interaction between pyroptosis and other regulated cell death (RCD) pathways. This review aims to enrich the mechanism under the development of dental pulp inflammation, and to uncover potential therapeutic targets for early alleviation and treatment of pulp inflammation.

Keywords: pulpitis, pyroptosis, dental pulp cells