Dental pulp stem cells

Among the numerous stem cells that have been identified from dental tissues and characterized, those from the pulpal tissues include Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED). Stem cells are found in higher concentration in coronal pulp than in radicular pulp.

Pulpal stem cells express cytokeratin 18 and 19, indicating a potential for odontoblast differentiation and dentin repair at sites of injury. A comparative study of bone marrow and dental pulp stem cells indicate they are influenced by different regulatory mechanisms to engage in bone and dentin formation respectively. Dentine sialoprotein, a marker for dentine synthesis has been observed in dental pulp stem cell transplants, while in bone marrow stem cell transplants expression of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9) have been seen. Numerous growth factors including transforming growth factor (TGF), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP-2) and dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1) are capable of inducing proliferation and differentiation of DPSC’s. DMP 1 has been shown to induce formation of dental pulp like tissue in vivo.

Pulpal stem cells are pluripotential having the capacity for angiogenic, chondrogenic, osteogenic, adipogenic and neurogenic differentiation, in some cases exceeding that of bone marrow stem cells. The pulpal tissues of exfoliated deciduous teeth and permanent third molars may serve as a suitable source of stem cells for future stem cell based therapies as they are found to be viable after cryopreservation. The application of DPSCs in regenerative dentistry and medicine (regeneration of bone and neural tissues) holds great promise.

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