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Dental stem cell and dental tissue regeneration

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Abstract

The teeth are highly differentiated chewing organs formed by the development of tooth germ tissue located in the jaw and consist of the enamel, dentin, cementum, pulp, and periodontal tissue. Moreover, the teeth have a complicated regulatory mechanism, special histologic origin, diverse structure, and important function in mastication, articulation, and aesthetics. These characteristics, to a certain extent, greatly complicate the research in tooth regeneration. Recently, new ideas for tooth and tissue regeneration have begun to appear with rapid developments in the theories and technologies in tissue engineering. Numerous types of stem cells have been isolated from dental tissue, such as dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), stem cells isolated from human pulp of exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED), periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs), stem cells from apical papilla (SCAPs), and dental follicle cells (DFCs). All these cells can regenerate the tissue of tooth. This review outlines the cell types and strategies of stem cell therapy applied in tooth regeneration, in order to provide theoretical basis for clinical treatments.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31501121, 31401255, 81570976, and 31500786) and Natural Science Foundation research project of Shaanxi Province (Nos. 2016JQ8019 and 016KW-005).

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Correspondence to Bei Li or Yan Jin.

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Zhai, Q., Dong, Z., Wang, W. et al. Dental stem cell and dental tissue regeneration. Front. Med. 13, 152–159 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-018-0628-x

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