title: Pulp tissue from primary teeth: new source of stem cells.
abstract: SHED (stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth) represent a population of postnatal stem cells capable of extensive proliferation and multipotential differentiation. Primary teeth may be an ideal source of postnatal stem cells to regenerate tooth structures and bone, and possibly to treat neural tissue injury or degenerative diseases. SHED are highly proliferative cells derived from an accessible tissue source, and therefore hold potential for providing enough cells for clinical applications. In this review, we describe the current knowledge about dental pulp stem cells and discuss tissue engineering approaches that use SHED to replace irreversibly inflamed or necrotic pulps with a healthy and functionally competent tissue that is capable of forming new dentin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Dentistry and Pediatric Dentistry, Dental School, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil. p-telles@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Paloma Dias
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Telles
authors.forename: Maria Aparecida de Andrade Moreira
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Vivien Thiemy
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Jacques Eduardo
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Nör
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000166:cytology*; D003813:Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000166:cytology*