Fig 1: Knockdown of Lumican inhibits odontoblastic differentiation of SCAPs. a Representative light microscopy images of DESCs after knockdown of Lumican with siRNA. b RT-qPCR analysis of gene expression changes of Lumican in DESCs (n = 3; one-way ANOVA). c Western blot analysis of Lumican in DESCs. Full-length blots/gels are presented in Supplementary Fig. S7. d ELISA revealed that Lumican was significantly downregulated in SPH-siLum3-CM after Lumican-siRNA interference (n = 3; Student’s t-test). e ALP and ARS staining showed that lumican knockdown inhibited early differentiation and late-stage mineralization. f, g Western blot analysis and quantification verified decreased DSPP, DMP1, and OCN protein levels after Lumican-siRNA interference (n = 3; Student’s t-test). Full-length blots/gels are presented in Supplementary Fig. S8. h RT-qPCR analysis indicated downregulation of Dspp, Dmp1, Ocn and Nestin mRNA expression after Lumican-siRNA interference (n = 3; Student’s t-test). NC negative control, Lum Lumican