Stem cells in dental care

Abstract

Introduction: Tooth loss compromises human oral health. Although several prosthetic methods, such as artificial denture and dental implants, are clinical therapies to tooth loss problems, they are thought to have safety and usage time issues. Probably, development of stem cell research will, over time, transform dental practice in a magnitude for greater than did dental implants. Recently, tooth tissue engineering has attracted more and more attention. Stem cell based tissue engineering is thought to be a promising way to replace the missing tooth. This review outlines the recent progress in mesenchymal stem cell research and use in tooth regeneration, oral and craniofacial applications. Methods: The study was effectuated on 25 extracted pigs teeth aged between 2-3 months. The cells were obtained from dental pulp fermentation in 0,25% dispase I for 10 min at 37 °C. The cells were cultivated in 24 well in triplicate, in DMEM, 10% FBS, 5%C02, 96% humidity, 37°C. Results: The cells were cultivated in 0,5xl06 per well, in 24 well culture dish during five days. At the end of this period cells were colored by Romanovski and counted under the light microscope. The number of the cells after seven days cultivation were: 4,5 millions in one ml. of suspension. Conclusions: Despite the rapid findings and wealth of data provided by in vitro and in vivo approaches in the field of dental regeneration, further research studies are required before pulp regeneration and even tooth restoration can be applied in dentistry. However, all data also confirm a realistic feasibility of dental tissue repair in the near future. It is obvious that our knowledge in dental tissue engineering expands rapidly. Stem cells from a tiny amount of tissue, such as the dental pulp, can be multiplied or expanded potentially to sufficient numbers for healing large, clinically relevant defects. Stem cells can differentiate into multiple cell lineages, thus providing the possibility that a common (stem) cell source can heal many tissues in the same patient, as opposed to the principle of harvesting healthy tissue to heal like tissue in association with autologous tissue grafting. Referring to previous findings, future experiments should be focused on the design of a highly sophisticated biological based scaffold system, which would greatly improve tooth viability and health maintenance in dentistry.