Dental Stem Cells: classification and applications

Abstract

In the last decades, the term stem cells has been one of the main topics to be discussed due to its scientific and medical importance, since its implementation in the field of medicine offers us very promising alternatives in the treatment and above all solution of diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer, Parkinson's disease, cancer, in treatments of traumatology and orthopedics, transplants, oral surgery, as well as the reconstruction of organs and tissues including those of dental origin, among others. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells characterized by their great capacity for self-renewal, clonality and differentiation; they are present in the embryonic and adult stages of life in human beings. At present, a large number of sources of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) in the oral cavity are classified into eight main populations, which are very easy to obtain for the dental team, including: dental pulp, exfoliated primary teeth, dental follicle, dental germ, apical papilla, periodontal ligament, gingiva and periosteum. The objective of the following review is to show the panorama of the research from its origin, generalities, classification and application of this group of cells, since in spite of the advances in stem cell biology, some ethical controversies, as well as tumor formation and rejection limit their usefulness. That is why in this review we carefully describe the potential of dental stem cells to differentiate into osteoblasts, osteocytes, odontoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes and neural cells.