In recent years, stem cell research has grown exponentially owing to the recognition that stem cell-based therapies have the potential to improve the life of patients with conditions that range from Alzheimer's disease to cardiac ischemia and regenerative medicine, like bone or tooth loss. Based on their ability to rescue and/or repair injured tissue and partially restore organ function, multip...

A close cooperation between chromatin states, transcriptional modulation, and epigenetic modifications is required for establishing appropriate regulatory circuits underlying self-renewal and differentiation of adult and embryonic stem cells. A growing body of research has established that the epigenome topology provides a structural framework for engaging genes in the non-random chromosomal in...

Neovascularization is one of the most important processes during tissue repair and regeneration. Current healing approaches based on the use of biomaterials combined with stem cells in critical-size bone defects fail due to the insufficient implant vascularization and integration into the host tissues. Therefore, here we studied the attraction, ingrowth, and distribution of blood vessels from t...

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) are neural crest-derived ecto-mesenchymal stem cells that can relatively easily and non-invasively be isolated from the dental pulp of extracted postnatal and adult teeth. Accumulating evidence suggests that DPSC have great promise as a cellular therapy for central nervous system (CNS) and retinal injury and disease. The mode of action by which DPSC confer therapeu...

Pulpal disease, specifically dental pulpitis, is triggered by exogeneous stimuli from cariogenic bacteria or traumatic injury. The specific host defense in the dental pulp is regulated by the innate and adaptive immunity, of which the pulp-dentin complex odontoblasts play an essential role in the early stage of the dental immune response. It has been reported that the NLRP3 inflammasome is expr...

BACKGROUND Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth (SHED) have the capability to differentiate into neural cells. Neurotrophins including Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and neurotrophin-4 (NT-4) have neurogenesis, neurotrophic, or neuroprotective effects and are expressed in developing teeth. The aim of this study was to meas...

BACKGROUND Successful isolation of human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) has been documented at least 120h after tooth extraction. Viable hDPSCs have been isolated chiefly from cryopreserved healthy molar teeth and their undigested dental pulp tissue. Isolation of hDPSCs from diseased but vital teeth after cryopreservation has not been reported. This study aimed to isolate hDPSCs from cryoprese...

SDF-1 (stromal cell derived factor-1) has been found to be widely expressed during dental pulp inflammation, while hDPSCs (human dental pulp stem cells) contribute to the repair of dental pulp. We showed that the migration of hDPSCs was induced by SDF-1 in a concentration-dependent manner and could be inhibited with siCXCR4 (C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4) and siCDC42 (cell division control pr...

The aim of this study was the fabrication and evaluation of a novel bioactive and bactericidal material, which could have applications in dentistry by supporting tissue regeneration and killing oral bacteria. Our hypothesis was that a new scaffold for pulp-dentin tissue engineering with enhanced antibacterial activity could be obtained by associating extracellular matrix derived from porcine bl...