Abstract
This review summarizes current advances in dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and their potential applications in the nervous diseases. Injured adult mammalian nervous system has a limited regenerative capacity due to an insufficient pool of precursor cells in both central and peripheral nervous systems. Nerve growth is also constrained by inhibitory factors (associated with central myelin) and barrier tissues (glial scarring). Stem cells, possessing the capacity of self-renewal and multicellular differentiation, promise new therapeutic strategies for overcoming these impediments to neural regeneration. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) derive from a cranial neural crest lineage, retain a remarkable potential for neuronal differentiation, and additionally express multiple factors that are suitable for neuronal and axonal regeneration. DPSCs can also express immunomodulatory factors that stimulate formation of blood vessels and enhance regeneration and repair of injured nerve. These unique properties together with their ready accessibility make DPSCs an attractive cell source for tissue engineering in injured and diseased nervous systems. In this review, we interrogate the neuronal differentiation potential as well as the neuroprotective, neurotrophic, angiogenic, and immunomodulatory properties of DPSCs and its application in the injured nervous system. Taken together, DPSCs are an ideal stem cell resource for therapeutic approaches to neural repair and regeneration in nerve diseases.
Highlights
Traumatic events, iatrogenic injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases can lead to axonal degeneration, inflammation, neuron death, and cytoarchitectural malformation in both the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS) [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This review summarizes the neuronal differentiation potential, neuroprotective features, and neurotrophic, angiogenic, and immunomodulatory properties of Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) in the pathological and injured nervous system
DPSCs have the biological properties of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and possess a considerable capacity to differentiate into neuron-like cells and secrete neuron-related trophic factors due to their cranial neural crest origin
Summary
Iatrogenic injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases can lead to axonal degeneration, inflammation, neuron death, and cytoarchitectural malformation in both the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS) [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The efficacy of stem cell therapies in nervous diseases is strongly influenced by trophic factors, for example, BDNF, GDNF, NGF, NT-3, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) [29, 30] The expression of these trophic factors by DPSCs is remarkably higher than those of MSCs derived from bone marrow (BMSCs) and adipose tissue [9, 30]. SCI involves an initial primary tissue disruption (e.g., mechanical damage to nerve cells and blood vessels) and a secondary injury caused by neuroinflammatory responses (e.g., excitotoxicity, blood-brain barrier disruption, oxidative stress, and apoptosis) [132, 133] Because of their neural crest lineage, DPSCs have championed as preferred stem cells for SCI therapies supported by growing evidence of DPSCs differentiating into neuron-like and oligodendrocyte-like cells that may promote axonal regeneration and tissue repair after SCI [28, 127, 134, 135]. These results suggest that DPSCs may become an important cell source for stem cell-based therapies in ocular diseases
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