Abstract
Craniofacial reconstruction may be a necessary treatment for those who have been affected by trauma, disease, or pathological developmental conditions. The use of stem cell therapy and tissue engineering shows massive potential as a future treatment modality. Currently in the literature, there is a wide variety of published experimental studies utilising the different stem cell types available and the plethora of available scaffold materials. This review investigates different stem cell sources and their unique characteristics to suggest an ideal cell source for regeneration of individual craniofacial tissues. At present, understanding and clinical applications of stem cell therapy remain in their infancy with numerous challenges to overcome. In spite of this, the field displays immense capacity and will no doubt be utilised in future clinical treatments of craniofacial regeneration.
Highlights
The human body is capable of phenomenal repair; this process is flawed; the swift production of scar and fibrotic tissue closes wounds rapidly but prevents proper recovery of function
This paper provides a brief introduction to stem cell therapy before outlining such stem cell based regeneration of craniofacial tissues, in a tissue type based fashion
While using the fenestration type model in laboratory rats is useful in evaluating and comparing the most effective possible treatment type, there is a need for more safe clinical experimentation in humans with periodontal disease such as that carried out by Feng et al Autologous periodontal cell progenitors (PDLPs) obtained from extracted third molars were seeded into hydroxyapatite and were implanted into 16 deep intrabony defects of pocket depth ≥6 mm in 3 male patients
Summary
The human body is capable of phenomenal repair; this process is flawed; the swift production of scar and fibrotic tissue closes wounds rapidly but prevents proper recovery of function. Stem cells are a cell type capable of self-renewal and natural or induced differentiation into multiple mature cell types [4] Tissue engineering harnesses these unique characteristics in order to regenerate functional aesthetic tissues [5]. Mesenchymal stem cells of dental tissues are of neural crest cell origin and possess particular relevance to regeneration of the craniofacial region as they have a shared embryological origin [1]. Dental stem cells have displayed excellent pluripotency with the ability to differentiate into endodermal, mesodermal, and ectodermal tissue lineages providing huge regenerative scope. To overcome some of the barriers of adult and nonadult stem cell sources, induced pluripotent stem cells were developed These are terminally differentiated somatic cells which are generated via genetic reprogramming to revert back to a plastic multipotent cell type. Dentine-pulp regeneration, PDL regeneration, and nonoral tissue regeneration, for example, bladder tissue engineering Dentine-pulp regeneration, craniofacial bone regeneration, neural tissue regeneration, and nonoral tissue regeneration, for example, hepatocyte-like cells Dentine/bone regeneration, continued root formation, and bioroot engineering Periodontal regeneration Tooth root regeneration Wound healing and immunomodulatory therapies for inflammatory disease
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