Therapeutic Potential of Stem Cells From Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth(Shed)- A Review

Abstract

Stem cells are groups of undifferentiated cells that have the ability to become any cell. Recent studies have shown that the stem cells present in the pulp of human teeth can also be used for the same purpose. Stem cell therapy is a safe procedure. The physician must follow proper cell administration techniques. Patients must also be screened for treatment candidacy as all people may not be a candidate for stem cells. Dental pulp stem cells are stem cells present in the dental pulp, which is the soft living tissue within teeth. They are pluripotent, as they can form embryoid body-like structures in vitro and teratoma-like structures that contained tissues derived from all three embryonic germ layers when injected in nude mice. Recent advancements prove that stem cells from exfoliated deciduous teeth prove more effective than the permanent ones. In a clinical trial stem cells extracted from children's baby teeth were used to regrow the living tissue in teeth damaged by injury. In the future they may be used to replace cells and tissues that have been damaged or lost due to disease. The review has covered various aspects to find if SHED is a potent product. Its viability and sustention as discussed by various authors has been discussed. Role of SHED in pulp tissue engineering, neural tissue engineering, their differentiation towards hormone secreting cells etc has been discussed. Hence the stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth also present another opportunity to dentistry to contribute to the development of tissue engineering.

Tissue Engineering with Stem Cell from Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth (SHED) and Collagen Matrix, Regulated by Growth Factor in Regenerating the Dental Pulp

“…Pluripotent stem cells are stem cells that can generate most cell types (over 200) and tissues found in organisms and have the ability to differentiate into cells of ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal origin. They can be obtained from a 5-14 day old blastocyst [35,44,45].…”

“…Multipotent stem cells are stem cells that can generate a limited number of cell and tissue types depending on their origin. These cells can be obtained from cord blood, fetal tissue and postnatal stem cells, including dental pulp stem cells [35,45,46].…”

“…Unipotent stem cells are stem cells that have the narrowest differentiation ability; the can only differentiate into one cell type but are able to divide repeatedly [43,45].…”

“…Induced Pluripotent Cells are pluripotent stem cells formed by the induction of multipotent cells or adult somatic cells with pluripotent factors such as Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Klf4, and C-myc [45,47].…”

“…SHEDs have two major advantages compared to other stem cells derived from dental tissue: they are easier to gain through noninvasive procedures and have a high proliferation rate [34,41,56,60,61]. SHEDs exhibit higher proliferation rates compared to dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) [41,45,58,[62][63][64].…”