Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Stem Cells. Sep 26, 2026; 18(9): 122036
Published online Sep 26, 2026. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.122036
Published online Sep 26, 2026. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.122036
Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A facilitates the senescence of human dental pulp stem cells by Parkin succinylation-mediated mitophagy
Hai-Chi Lv, Yu-Feng Fan, Xue-Jun Ge, Shanxi Medical University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Shanxi Province Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases Prevention and New Materials, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Lv HC contributed to investigation, formal analysis, visualization and roles/writing - original draft; Fan YF contributed to conceptualization, data curation, methodology and software; Ge XJ contributed to project administration, resources, supervision and validation, writing - review & editing. All authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
AI contribution statement: Portions of this manuscript were edited using AI tools for language refinement. The authors were responsible and agree to accountability for all scientific content.
Supported by Project Task Book for Shanxi Provincial Basic Research Program, No. 202303021211127.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The animal study was approved by the Experimental Animal Welfare Ethics Committee of Beijing MDKN (Approval No. MDKN-2024-270). All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.
Corresponding author: Xue-Jun Ge, Shanxi Medical University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Shanxi Province Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases Prevention and New Materials, No. 56 Xinjiannan Road, Yingze District, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China. gxj19722003@163.com
Received: April 8, 2026
Revised: June 16, 2026
Accepted: September 18, 2026
Published online: September 26, 2026
Processing time: 169 Days and 23.5 Hours
Revised: June 16, 2026
Accepted: September 18, 2026
Published online: September 26, 2026
Processing time: 169 Days and 23.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study reveals that carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A) promotes senescence of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) by inhibiting Parkin-mediated mitophagy. CPT1A is upregulated in senescent late-passage DPSCs, and its knockdown suppresses senescence while enhancing mitophagy. Mechanistically, CPT1A acts as a succinyltransferase that succinylates Parkin protein at lysine 27, reducing Parkin stability. Silencing CPT1A decreases Parkin succinylation, stabilizes Parkin, and restores mitophagy. In vivo, CPT1A knockdown alleviates D galactose-induced dental pulp aging via Parkin-dependent mitophagy. This research identifies a novel CPT1A-Parkin succinylation axis controlling DPSC senescence.