Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy - Volume 10, Issue 5, 2015

Stem cell-based therapies are considered as a promising treatment for many clinical usage such as tooth regeneration, bone repairation, spinal cord injury, and so on. However, the ideal stem cell for stem cell-based therapy still remains to be elucidated. In the past decades, several types of stem cells have been isolated from teeth, including dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (S Read More

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are ideal candidates for different cellular therapies due to their simple isolation, extensive expansion potential, and low immunogenicity. For various therapeutic approaches, such as bone and cartilage repair, MSCs are expected to replace the damaged tissues by direct differentiation. However, age-related changes in MSCs lead to the loss of differentiation potential, loss of proliferation potential an Read More

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) hold great potential for regenerative medicine. Grasp of the underlying elaborate machinery is required for clinical application. MicroRNAs serve as important post-transcriptional regulators of various normal and pathological processes. Substantial headway has been made in deciphering miRNAs’ roles in establishment, maintenance and exit from pluripotency in ES cells. Here, we summarize curr Read More

Predictable and complete periodontal regeneration following periodontitis has been the ultimate goal of periodontal treatment. It has been recognized that Hertwig’s epithelial root sheath (HERS) cells play a crucial role in cementogenesis and root formation. As the descendants of HERS and unique odontogenic epithelium in the adult periodontium, epithelial cell rests of Malassez (ERM) have long been considered as quies Read More

Amelogenesis consists of various development phases that are tightly controlled by the exquisitely sequential and reciprocal interactions between tooth epithelium and mesenchyme. Subtle alterations during this complex physiological and biochemical development events could lead to severe enamel defects in shape, color and structure. Modulations in microRNA, DNA methylation and chromatin modifications are emerging as Read More

Adult dental mesenchymal stem cells (DMSCs) are multi-potent stem cells that are involved in dental tissue repair and regeneration. DMSCs are able to differentiate into multiple lineages, including odontogenic, osteogenic, neurogenic, adipogenic, chondrogenic, hepatogenic lineages and insulinproducing cells. However, the DMSCs from functioning, impacted or exfoliated teeth may not be available when needed. Recently, Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (~21nt), noncoding, and single-stranded RNAs that can negatively regulate gene expression by binding to 3’UTRs of target mRNAs sequence-specifically to affect their translation and/or stability. MiRNAs are involved in multiple developmental events in various tissues and organs. Such events include dental enamel development. This review focuses on the expression and functions of miRNAs re Read More

Overall enamel is the hard tissue overlying teeth that is vulnerable to caries, congenital defects, and damage due to trauma. Not only is enamel incapable of self-repair in most species, but it is also subject to attrition. Besides the use of artificial materials to restore enamel, enamel regeneration is a promising approach to repair enamel damage. In order to comprehend the progression and challenges in tissue-engin Read More

Stem cells are unspecialized cells, which have the capacity to self-renew and generate differentiated cell types. They hold great promises in regenerative medicine, which has the potential to revolutionize our approach to treat diseases and alleviate problems caused by trauma and aging. The dental field has been an active area for researching stem cell based therapies and a great effort has been made to develop strategi Read More

Postnatal skeletogenesis is a highly regulated process that subpopulations of bone marrow stem cells differentiate into mature skeletal tissues to maintain and repair the postnatal skeletons. Based on their skeletogenic capacity, purified bone marrow stem cells have been used to repair and replace damaged skeletal tissues in recent years. In the meantime, significant effort has been devoted to unveil the nature and function Read More

Osteogenic differentiation of skeletal stem cells is an integral part of bone development and homeostasis, and the perturbation of this process is one of the causes to skeletal disease. Understanding of how epigenetic events regulate skeletal stem cell differentiation is therefore of great importance. While the basic epigenetic modifications leading to bone formation are somewhat under explored, a significant amount of r Read More