Human Oral Mucosa as a Potentially Effective Source of Neural Crest Stem Cells for Clinical Practice

Abstract

We report in this study on the isolation and expansion of neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) from the epithelium of oral mucosa (OM) using reagents that are GMP-certified and FDA-approved for clinical use. Characterization analysis showed that the levels of keratins K2, K6C, K4, K13, K31, and K15—specific to OM epithelial cells—were significantly lower in the experimental NCSCs. While SOX10 was decreased with no statistically significant difference, the earliest neural crest specifier genes SNAI1/2, Ap2a, Ap2c, SOX9, SOX30, Pax3, and Twist1 showed a trend in increased expression in NCSCs. In addition, proteins of Oct4, Nestin and Noth1 were found to be greatly expressed, confirming NCSC multipotency. In conclusion, our study showed that the epithelium of OM contains NCSCs that can be isolated and expanded with clinical-grade reagents to supply the demand for multipotent cells required for clinical applications in regenerative medicine. Supported by Emmaus Medical Inc.

Spheroids and organoids: Their implications for oral and craniofacial tissue/organ regeneration

“…Interestingly, tissues of the oral and craniofacial region, including gingiva and oral mucosa, have been reported to harbor neural crest-derived stem cells. 56 , 57 , 58 Research utilizing spheroid culture to efficiently cultivate and expand neural crest-derived cells from oral and craniofacial tissues can be considered as a unique and promising research leveraging the tissue characteristics of the oral and craniofacial region. Therefore, examples of such studies are also presented herein.…”