Dental follicle stem cells and tissue engineering.

Adult stem cells are multipotent and can be induced experimentally to differentiate into various cell lineages. Such cells are therefore a key part of achieving the promise of tissue regeneration. The most studied stem cells are those of the hematopoietic and mesenchymal lineages.

Stem cells isolated from human dental follicles have osteogenic potential.

Objective: Stem cells isolated from human dental follicles as a potential cell source for bone-tissue engineering were examined for correcting a critical bone defect.

Study Design: Impacted third molars were collected and single cell-derived cell populations were cultivated in growth medium. Single cell-derived cell lines were examined in terms of cell shape, gene expression patterns, differentiation capacity in vitro, and osteogenic potential in vivo.

Oral bacterial extracts facilitate early osteogenic/dentinogenic differentiation in human dental pulp-derived cells.

Objectives: Bacterial metabolites demineralize dental hard tissues, and soluble factors lead to tertiary dentinogenesis in the area of the dentin-pulp complex. However, it is unclear whether the oral bacteria are directly involved in the differentiation of dental pulp cells. In this study, we evaluated the effect of oral bacterial extracts on cellular differentiation in human dental pulp-derived cells (hDPC).