Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells: From Biology to Clinical Applications

It has been reported that these cells can be easily cryopreserved and stored for long periods of time and still retain their multipotency and tissue-producing capacity. Benefits (1) dental pulp is a remarkable site of stem cells; (2) collecting stem cells from dental pulp is a noninvasive practice that can be performed in the adult during life and in the young after surgical extraction of wisdom teeth, a common surgical practice; (3) tissue sacrifice is very low when collecting dental pulp stem cells; (4)several cytotypes can be obtained from dental pulp stem cells owing to their multipotency; (5)transplantation of new-formed bone tissue obtained from dental pulp stem cells leads to the formation of vascularized adult bone and integration between the graft and the surrounding host blood supply; (6) dental pulp stem cells can be cryopreserved and stored for long periods; (7)dental pulp is ideal for tissue engineering and for clinical use in several pathologies requiring bone tissue growth and repair. In addition, tooth extraction is a clinical/therapeutical need. If bone marrow is the site of first choice for hematopoietic stem cell collection, dental pulp must be considered one of the major sites for mesenchymal cell collection. The good results obtained up to now reinforce this thought.

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