The different expression profiles of microRNAs in elderly and young human dental pulp and the role of miR-433 in human dental pulp cells

•Conduct expression profiles of miRNAs in HDPCs of young and elderly people.•MiR-433 was most up-regulated in the aging group and direct target GRB2.•MiR-433 control the RAS–MAPK signaling pathway by negatively regulating GRB2.•MiR-433 can affect HDPCs biological behavior and function during senescence.•MiR-433 may be the potential target in promoting repair and regeneration in HDPCs. As a kind of endogenous noncoding small RNA, MicroRNA (miRNA) plays important roles of regulation to various physiological functions, while its affections on senescence of human dental pulp cell (HDPCs) are still unknown. Thus, we identified the senescence-associated miRNAs in HDPCs by microarray analysis, predicted their targets and regulatory signaling pathway by gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway database analysis. After validated, the senescence-associated miRNAs’ expression level was up- and down-regulated using lentivirus package and cell transfection to find its role in HDPCs’ morphology, proliferation, apoptosis, and mineralization. The results showed 27 miRNAs differentially expressed at least 1.5-fold, of which 16 were up-regulated and 11 down-regulated, the function of their targets was mainly focused on signal transduction, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and transcription regulation. According to the change fold, we speculated that miR-433 could be one of the vital senescence-associated miRNAs of HDPCs and found its target (GRB2), validated that miR-433 could negatively regulate GRB2 and the RAS–MAPK signaling pathway, leading to the decline of proliferation and mineralization ability of HDPCs and the acceleration of cell apoptosis, suggesting the regulation of miR-433 might be the potential target to promote repair and regeneration of HDPCs in the elderly.