UCLA

Regenerative endodontics techniques have recently become one of the most investigated areas in the field of endodontics. Utilizing tissue engineering concepts enable us to restore teeth vitality and health after the pulp tissue damage. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) transplantation faced several step-backs due to cell culture requirement and regulatory hurdles for in vitro expansion of cells. Our group demonstrated previously dental pulp tissue explants generate mesenchymal stem cells, named MP-MSCs, that exhibited stem cell properties such as differentiation capacities and mineralization potential in vitro which was comparable to DPSCs. We established the fundamental rational for the usage of pulp tissue grafting in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative endodontics. In this study, we aimed to characterize the dental pulp tissue explants and MP-MSCs in vitro through serial tissue passages, comparing their odontogenic differentiation potential. This study demonstrated that cells migrating out from dental pulp tissue explants at later passages retained their growth potential as well as odontogenic differentiation capacity. Minced-pulp MSCs also expressed stem cells marker, CD146, at late tissue passage (T10). This study indicates that dental pulp tissue explants can potentially yield unlimited source of mesenchymal stem cells which builds up on our novel approach of utilizing direct pulp tissue grafting as a regenerative endodontic therapy.