Neural crest derived stem cells from dental pulp and tooth-associated stem cells for peripheral nerve regeneration

Abstract

The peripheral nerve injuries, representing some of the most common types of traumatic lesions affecting the nervous system, are highly invalidating for the patients besides being a huge social burden. Although peripheral nervous system owns a higher regenerative capacity than does central nervous system, mostly depending on Schwann cells intervention in injury repair, several factors determine the extent of functional outcome after healing. Based on the injury type, different therapeutic approaches have been investigated so far. Nerve grafting and Schwann cell transplantation have represented the gold standard treatment for peripheral nerve injuries, however these approaches own limitations, such as scarce donor nerve availability and donor site morbidity. Cell based therapies might provide a suitable tool for peripheral nerve regeneration, in fact, the ability of different stem cell types to differentiate towards Schwann cells in combination with the use of different scaffolds have been widely investigated in animal models of peripheral nerve injuries in the last decade. Dental pulp is a promising cell source for regenerative medicine, because of the ease of isolation procedures, stem cell proliferation and multipotency abilities, which are due to the embryological origin from neural crest. In this article we review the literature concerning the application of tooth derived stem cell populations combined with different conduits to peripheral nerve injuries animal models, highlighting their regenerative contribution exerted through either glial differentiation and neuroprotective/neurotrophic effects on the host tissue.

Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells Modulate Cytokine Production in vitro by Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells From Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients

“…DPSCs are characterized by a high proliferation rate and low immunogenicity, allowing allogeneic administrations. Moreover, they are able to differentiate into the osteogenic, chondrogenic, adipogenic, myogenic, and neural lineages due to their embryological origin from the neural crest ( Pisciotta et al, 2020b ). Finally, DPSCs own immunomodulatory properties, e.g., through the expression of FasL and the release of soluble factors ( Demircan et al, 2011 ; Zhao et al, 2012 ; Spagnuolo et al, 2018 ; Pisciotta et al, 2020a ; Zayed and Iohara, 2020 ).…”

Modulation of Cell Death and Promotion of Chondrogenic Differentiation by Fas/FasL in Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells (hDPSCs)

“…Particularly, neural crest cells originate during the formation of neural tube, at the third week of embryo development, then undergo an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and migrate to different body compartments under the control of several regulatory factors. Following migration, neural crest cells generate the majority of craniofacial tissues, including tooth, fat, muscle, bone and cartilage tissues, as well as cranial peripheral ganglia and nerves, among other cell types, such as melanocytes (Pisciotta et al, 2020). It has been widely demonstrated that hDPSCs are able to differentiate toward lineages belonging to all the three germ layers, as a matter of fact these stem cells can commit to glial cells and participate in peripheral nerve regeneration (Carnevale et al, 2018), contribute in restoring urethral sphincter contractile function (Zordani et al, 2019), reduce fibrosis and ameliorate muscle trophism in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy mouse model (Pisciotta et al, 2015b), besides promoting bone tissue regeneration in critical size calvarial defects (Pisciotta et al, 2012).…”

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment Perspectives in Peripheral Nerve Regeneration: Systematic Review

“…Human dental pulp represents a suitable stem cell source due to its easy accessibility through routine procedures of wisdom teeth extraction and houses a progenitor mesenchymal population able to differentiate into multi-lineage cells. Data from different studies suggest that these cells not only show self-renewal and multiple differentiation potential but also display immunomodulatory properties associated with the expression of interleukin-8 (IL-8), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and TGF-β [ 43 ]; they also have a promising regenerative capability towards tissue damage [ 48 ].…”