DPSCs and SHED in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) from permanent teeth and stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) have attracted tremendous interest recently by playing a major role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, since stem cell technology is still in its infancy, interdisciplinary cooperation between medicine, basic biological research, nanotechnology and materials science is needed to achieve successful clinical applications. Similar to mesenchymal stem cells, DPSCs and SHED can undergo self-renewal and have multipotent differentiation ability, but unlike other sources of stem cells such as embryonic stem cells, which involves the destruction of human embryo, DPSCs and SHED have limited ethical concerns as they are readily and easily accessible, non-invasive and disposed off naturally. Not only DPSCs and SHED can be used for cell based therapies and bio-artificial tissue constructs but also made to differentiate into other cell types. Here, we discuss on definitions, opportunities, advantages and limitations of DPSCs and SHED in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.