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Review
. 2017 May 23:8:2041731417702531.
doi: 10.1177/2041731417702531. eCollection 2017 Jan-Dec.

Therapeutic potential of dental stem cells

Elna Paul Chalisserry  1   2 , Seung Yun Nam  1   2   3 , Sang Hyug Park  1   2   3 , Sukumaran Anil  4
Affiliations
Review

Therapeutic potential of dental stem cells

Elna Paul Chalisserry et al. J Tissue Eng. .

Abstract

Stem cell biology has become an important field in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering therapy since the discovery and characterization of mesenchymal stem cells. Stem cell populations have also been isolated from human dental tissues, including dental pulp stem cells, stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth, stem cells from apical papilla, dental follicle progenitor cells, and periodontal ligament stem cells. Dental stem cells are relatively easily obtainable and exhibit high plasticity and multipotential capabilities. The dental stem cells represent a gold standard for neural-crest-derived bone reconstruction in humans and can be used for the repair of body defects in low-risk autologous therapeutic strategies. The bioengineering technologies developed for tooth regeneration will make substantial contributions to understand the developmental process and will encourage future organ replacement by regenerative therapies in a wide variety of organs such as the liver, kidney, and heart. The concept of developing tooth banking and preservation of dental stem cells is promising. Further research in the area has the potential to herald a new dawn in effective treatment of notoriously difficult diseases which could prove highly beneficial to mankind in the long run.

Keywords: Dental stem cell; differentiation; regeneration; stem cell therapy; tissue engineering; tooth banking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic drawing illustrating sources of human dental tissue-derived MSCs. ABMSCs: alveolar bone-derived mesenchymal stem cells; DFPCs: dental follicle progenitor cells; DPSCs: dental pulp stem cells; GMSCs: gingival mesenchymal stem cells; PDLSCs: periodontal ligament stem cells; SCAP: stem cells from the apical part of the human dental papilla; SHED: stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth; TGPCs: tooth germ progenitor cells.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The figure enumerates various cell types derived from dental stem cells: (a) cementoblast, (b) adipocyte, (c) odontoblasts, (d) neuronal cells, (e) myoblast, (f) chondrocyte, (g) pulp cells, (h) hepatocyte, (i) endothelial cell, (j) oteoblast, and (k) melanocyte.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Multilineage differentiation capacity, tissue regeneration, and potential clinical applications of human dental stem cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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