Plants and Their Bioactive Constituents in Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Periodontal Regeneration: A Novel Prospective

Abstract

Periodontitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease, which causes the destruction of both the soft and mineralized tissues. However, current treatments such as bone graft materials, barrier membranes, and protein products all have difficulties in regenerating the complete periodontal tissue structure. Stem cell-based tissue engineering has now emerged as one of the most effective treatments for the patients suffering from periodontal diseases. Plants not only can be substrates for life processes, but also contain hormones or functional molecules. Numbers of preclinical studies have revealed that products from plant can be successfully applied in modulating proliferation and differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells. Plant-derived substances can induce stem cells osteogenic differentiation, and they also possess angiogenic potency. Furthermore, in the field of tissue engineering, plant-derived compounds or plant extracts can be incorporated with biomaterials or utilized as biomaterials for cell transplantation. So it is speculated that botanical products may become a new perspective in stem cell-based periodontal regeneration. However, the lack of achieving predict clinical efficacy and quality control has been the major impediment to its extensive application. This review gives an overview of the prospect of applying different plant-derived substances in various human mesenchymal stem cells-based periodontal regeneration.

Figure 1

The procedure of investigating plant medicine for periodontal regeneration using hyphenated techniques. The plant parts including roots, stems, leaves, and fruits are used in preparations. The process of a plant product therapeutic investigation is summarized as follows: preparation of crude extracts, fractionation for localized and targeted isolation, further purification, and chemical screening using modern techniques such as HPLC, UHPLC, HPLC-MS, bioassays in vitro and in vivo, and clinical evaluation.

Figure 2

Schematic diagram for the activation of BMPs, Wnt, and MAPK pathways by phytochemicals treatment. Multiple signaling pathways regulate human mesenchymal stem cells osteoblastic differentiation, mainly including BMPs, Wnt, and MAPK. Some plant-derived bioactives could activate certain signaling pathway. Through the coordination of other pathways, then downstream molecules translocate into the nuclei where there is interaction with transcription factors such as Runx2 and Osx via which they regulate bone-related genes expression and play different roles at different stages of osteogenesis.