RUNX2 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: In osteo/odontogenic differentiation assay using the cultured DPCs from T2DM and the controls, odontoblast-specific genes, Alpl, Dmp1, Osx, and Runx2 were significantly decreased in T2DM DPC compared to control DPC, whereas gene expression of Klf4 and Nes was not altered (Figure 5D,D’).