Spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to persistent functional deficits due to the loss of neurons and glia and to limited axonal regeneration after such injury. Recently, three independent groups have reported marked recovery of hindlimb locomotor function after the transplantation of human adult dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) into ra...

Background: Dental Pulp Stem Cells (DPSCs) are multipotent mesenchymal stem cells. DPSCs can renew themselves and differentiate into various cell types such as adipocytes, osteocytes, neurons, etc. DPSCs possess immunomodulatory properties and can inhibit peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation. Recent studies showed that conditioned-medium mesenchymal stem cells also had immunos...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have a high potency for differentiation to neurons and glial cells for replacement of damaged cells and paracrine effects for the regeneration and remyelination of host axons. Dental pulp is known to have a potential to differentiate into neural-like cells; therefore, dental pulp may be used as an autologous cell source for neural repair. In this study, we selectively e...

Dental pulp tissue was collected from 6 healthy adult patients, prior to prosthetic treatments, in order to evaluate the in situ phenotype of dental pulp stromal cells and compare with that of dental pulp stem cells. A CD34-/CD44+/CD105-/CD117+/CD146-/nestin- phenotype of stromal cells in the dental pulp core was found. Cells with a similar phenotype, but CD44-, were found in the cell richzone....

Currently, much information is provided regarding the presence and the roles in tissue regeneration of stem cell niches residing in post-natal dental pulp. So far, three types of adult stem cells have been isolated from dental pulp. Correct evaluation of these cells is important in order to determine their potential use in clinical fields. The present study aims to review the origins and immuno...

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...

Pulp vitality is extremely important for the tooth viability, since it provides nutrition and acts as biosensor to detect pathogenic stimuli. In the dental clinic, most dental pulp infections are irreversible due to its anatomical position and organization. It is difficult for the body to eliminate the infection, which subsequently persists and worsens. The widely used strategy currently in the...

dental follicle derived cells showed enhanced osteoblastspecific genes and ectopic bone formation after in vivo transplantation, indicating dental follicle is the powerful stem cell source in bone tissue regeneration. Dental pulp is expected to harbor the pools of undifferentiated precursor cells for nerve or vascular tissue regeneration. The most powerful advantage of dental tissues as stem ce...

Regeneration of dental pulp after pulpectomy was accomplished recently by autologous transplantation of dental pulp stem/ progenitor cells into the root canal. The identical patterns of qualitative and quantitative protein and mRNA expression in the regenerated pulp and normal pulp demonstrated complete pulp regeneration. The lack of tissue specific markers in the dental pulp is a major challen...

To heal or not to heal? Chemokines as determinants of constructive or destructive inflammatory microenvironments Dear Readers, Dental pulp stem cells gained attention as a subpopulation of postnatal stem cells with the ability of multipotential differentiation. Therefore, these cells, specifically SHED (stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth), have been extensively investigated as a p...