Fetal bovine serum (fbs)

Normal human lung fibroblasts (Lonza, #CC-2512, Lot # 0000343490, passage 3) were cultured in fibroblast basal medium (Lonza, #CC-3131) with growth supplements (Lonza, #CC-4126). Human primary cardiac fibroblasts (Sciencell, #6300, Lot #5433, passage 4) were cultured in FM2 media (Sciencell, #2331), supplemented with FBS (Sciencell, #0025), FGS-2 (Sciencell, #2382), and Penicillin-Streptomycin (Life Technologies, #15070-063). Human primary renal proximal tubule epithelial cells (Lonza, #CC-2553, Lot#0000362300, passage 3) were cultured in renal epithelial cell growth basal medium (Lonza, #CC-3191) supplemented with REGM SingleQuots (Lonza, #CC-4127). Primary human hepatic stellate cells (Sciencell, #5300, Lot#10279, passage 4) were cultured in Stellate Cell Medium (Sciencell, #5301) supplemented with FBS (Sciencell, #0010), stellate cell growth supplement (Sciencell, #5352), and Penicillin-Streptomycin solution (Sciencell, #0503). All cells were Incubated at 37°C in the presence of 5% CO2. For TGFβ treatment, cells were plated and serum-starved for overnight. The next day, 5ng/ml of recombinant human TGFβ1 (BioLegend, #580702) was added to the culture medium and cells were incubated at 37°C for the indicated time. For inhibitor treatment, cells were treated with recombinant human TGFβ1 in the presence of vehicle DMSO (Sigma, #D2650) or compounds at various concentrations.

Wisdom teeth were extracted from Chinese young adults (18–25 years of age) with informed consent and approval of the Ethical Committee of Huashan Hospital, Fudan University. The hDPSCs were isolated and proliferated as previously described.¹⁵ Briefly, the pulp tissues were enzymatically dissociated for 30 min in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM) containing collagenase type I (3 mg/mL) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). The digested solution was filtered through a 70 μm filter (BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA). After centrifugation at 1000g for 5 min, the cell suspension was plated in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Sciencell, San Diego, CA, USA) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (HyClone, Logan, UT, USA) at 37 °C and 5% CO₂. All primary hDPSCs used in the current study were in passages 3–5. The hDPSCs osteogenic medium was prepared with 10% FBS (Sciencell), 1% penicillin/streptomycin, 10 nM dexamethasone (Sigma), 10 mM β-glycerophosphate, and 50 μg/mL ascorbic acid (Solarbio, Shanghai, China).