Tooth Organ Bioengineering: Cell Sources and Innovative Approaches

2012

With the advancing times, we are on the verge of a paradigm shift, evolving from offering traditional home care to considering biological solutions to various diseases. With the extraordinary advances taking place in the field of medical science, we are now focused on finding "biological solutions to biological problems."Regenerating the whole tooth is no more a dream. The credit of bio-engineering the tooth goes to stem cells. Stem cells have revolutionized the entire health care delivery. So, the time is certainly ripe for us to familiarize ourselves with stem cells. The aim of this review is to outline stem cells and its application in dentistry. ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

European Cells and Materials, 2015

Repair of dental pulp and periodontal lesions remains a major clinical challenge. Classical dental treatments require the use of specialised tissue-adapted materials with still questionable efficacy and durability. Stem cell-based therapeutic approaches could offer an attractive alternative in dentistry since they can promise physiologically improved structural and functional outcomes. These therapies necessitate a sufficient number of specific stem cell populations for implantation. Dental mesenchymal stem cells can be easily isolated and are amenable to in vitro expansion while retaining their stemness. In vivo studies realised in small and large animals have evidenced the potential of dental mesenchymal stem cells to promote pulp and periodontal regeneration, but have also underlined new important challenges. The homogeneity of stem cell populations and their quality control, the delivery method, the quality of the regenerated dental tissues and their integration to the host tissue are some of the key challenges. The use of bioactive scaffolds that can elicit effective tissue repair response, through activation and mobilisation of endogenous stem cell populations, constitutes another emerging therapeutic strategy. Finally, the use of stem cells and induced pluripotent cells for the regeneration of entire teeth represents a novel promising alternative to dental implant treatment after tooth loss. In this mini-review, we present the currently applied techniques in restorative dentistry and the various attempts that are made to bridge gaps in knowledge regarding treatment strategies by translating basic stem cell research into the dental practice.

Frontiers in physiology, 2014

Stem cells are capable of renewing themselves through cell division and have the remarkable ability to differentiate into many different types of cells. They therefore have the potential to become a central tool in regenerative medicine. During the last decade, advances in tissue engineering and stem cell-based tooth regeneration have provided realistic and attractive means of replacing lost or damaged teeth. Investigation of embryonic and adult (tissue) stem cells as potential cell sources for tooth regeneration has led to many promising results. However, technical and ethical issues have hindered the availability of these cells for clinical application. The recent discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has provided the possibility to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine (dentistry) by offering the option of autologous transplantation. In this article, we review the current progress in the field of stem cell-based tooth regeneration and discuss the possibilit...

The Open Dentistry Journal, 2013

Tooth loss or absence is a common condition that can be caused by various pathological circumstances. The replacement of the missing tooth is important for medical and aesthetic reasons. Recently, scientists focus on tooth tissue engineering, as a potential treatment, beyond the existing prosthetic methods. Tooth engineering is a promising new therapeutic approach that seeks to replace the missing tooth with a bioengineered one or to restore the damaged dental tissue. Its main tool is the stem cells that are seeded on the surface of biomaterials (scaffolds), in order to create a biocomplex. Several populations of mesenchymal stem cells are found in the tooth. These different cell types are categorized according to their location in the tooth and they demonstrate slightly different features. It appears that the dental stem cells isolated from the dental pulp and the periodontal ligament are the most powerful cells for tooth engineering. Additional research needs to be performed in or...

Dental Stem Cells, 2016

Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, 2011

The accelerated pace of research in the stem cell field in recent decades and the accumulated body of knowledge has spurred the interest in potential clinical applications of stem cells in all branches of medicine including regenerative dentistry. In humans, embryonic and adult stem cells are two major groups of cells that can serve as a donor source in tissue engineering strategies based on ex-vivo cellular expansion. It has been shown that adult stem cell populations are present in all examined living tissues of the organism, thus being a crucial source of tissue homeostasis and regeneration, and offering a target population for in situ stimulation of extensive tissue regeneration. Experimental findings indicate that in the complex structure of the tooth organ, both periodontal and endodontic tissues harbour adult stem cells with characteristics peculiar to early stages of cellular differentiation. Myriad of strategies incorporating both embryonic and adult stem cells for the regeneration of a particular tooth structure or the whole teeth were proposed; however their successful application to solve real problems encountered in the clinical practice of dentistry remains an elusive and challenging objective.

Journal of Oral Biology and Craniofacial Research, 2012

The creation of teeth in the laboratory depends upon the manipulation of stem cells and requires a synergy of all cellular and molecular events that finally lead to the formation of tooth-specific hard tissues, dentin, and enamel. This review focuses on the different sources of stem cells that have been used for making teeth in vitro. The search was performed from 1970 to 2012 and was limited to English language papers. The keywords searched on medline were 'stem cells and dentistry,' 'stem cells and odontoblast,' 'stem cells and dentin,' and 'stem cells and ameloblasts.'

International Healthcare Research Journal, 2017

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023

Implant dentistry is the branch of dentistry that deals with replacing lost teeth and the structures that support them with artificial prostheses that are attached (osteointegrated) to the jaw bone. The regeneration of hard dental tissues has become a reality and a top goal in contemporary dentistry with the development of the current idea of tissue engineering approach and the discovery of the potential of stem cells in dentistry. The current review summarises recent developments in stemcell-based regeneration techniques for hard dental tissues and assesses the viability of using growth factors and stem cells in scaffold-based or scaffold-free methods to stimulate the regeneration of the entire tooth or just some of its component parts.

Stem Cells International, 2016

Over the past decade, the dental field has benefited from recent findings in stem cell biology and tissue engineering that led to the elaboration of novel ideas and concepts for the regeneration of dental tissues or entire new teeth. In particular, stem cell-based regenerative approaches are extremely promising since they aim at the full restoration of lost or damaged tissues, ensuring thus their functionality. These therapeutic approaches are already applied with success in clinics for the regeneration of other organs and consist of manipulation of stem cells and their administration to patients. Stem cells have the potential to self-renew and to give rise to a variety of cell types that ensure tissue repair and regeneration throughout life. During the last decades, several adult stem cell populations have been isolated from dental and periodontal tissues, characterized, and tested for their potential applications in regenerative dentistry. Here we briefly present the various stem ...