Dental Pulp Stem Cells: A Promising Tool for Bone Regeneration

Riccardo d’Aquino, Gianpaolo Papaccio, Gregorio Laino, Antonio Graziano

Human tissues are different in term of regenerative properties. Stem cells are a promising tool for tissue regeneration, thanks to their particular characteristics of proliferation, differentiation and plasticity. Several "loci" or "niches" within the adult human body are colonized by a significant number of stem cells. However, access to these potential collection sites often is a limiting point. The interaction with biomaterials is a further point that needs to be considered for the therapeutic use of stem cells. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have been demonstrated to answer all of these issues: access to the collection site of these cells is easy and produces very low morbidity; extraction of stem cells from pulp tissue is highly efficiency; they have an extensive differentiation ability; and the demonstrated interactivity with biomaterials makes them ideal for tissue reconstruction. SBP-DPSCs are a multipotent stem cell subpopulation of DPSCs which are able to differentiate into osteoblasts, synthesizing 3D woven bone tissue chips in vitro and that are capable to synergically differentiate into osteoblasts and endotheliocytes. Several studied have been performed on DPSCs and they mainly found that these cells are multipotent stromal cells that can be safety cryopreserved, used with several scaffolds, that can extensively proliferate, have a long lifespan and build in vivo an adult bone with Havers channels and an appropriate vascularization. A definitive proof of their ability to produce dentin has not been yet done. Interestingly, they seem to possess immunoprivileges as they can be grafted into allogenic tissues and seem to exert anti-inflammatory abilities, like many other mesenchymal stem cells. The easy management of dental pulp stem cells make them feasible for use in clinical trials on human patients.