Pluripotency of Stem Cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth for Tissue Engineering

Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) are highly proliferative pluripotent cells that can be retrieved from primary teeth. Although SHED are isolated from the dental pulp, their differentiation potential is not limited to odontoblasts only. In fact, SHED can differentiate into seve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vinicius Rosa, Nileshkumar Dubey, Intekhab Islam, Kyung-San Min, Jacques E. Nör
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2016-01-01
Series:Stem Cells International
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5957806
Description
Summary:Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) are highly proliferative pluripotent cells that can be retrieved from primary teeth. Although SHED are isolated from the dental pulp, their differentiation potential is not limited to odontoblasts only. In fact, SHED can differentiate into several cell types including neurons, osteoblasts, adipocytes, and endothelial cells. The high plasticity makes SHED an interesting stem cell model for research in several biomedical areas. This review will discuss key findings about the characterization and differentiation of SHED into odontoblasts, neurons, and hormone secreting cells (e.g., hepatocytes and islet-like cell aggregates). The outcomes of the studies presented here support the multipotency of SHED and their potential to be used for tissue engineering-based therapies.
ISSN:1687-966X
1687-9678