title: Dental and orofacial mesenchymal stem cells in craniofacial regeneration: The prosthodontist's point of view.
abstract: Of the available regenerative treatment options, craniofacial tissue regeneration using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) shows promise. The ability of stem cells to produce multiple specialized cell types along with their extensive distribution in many adult tissues have made them an attractive target for applications in tissue engineering. MSCs reside in a wide spectrum of postnatal tissue types and have been successfully isolated from orofacial tissues. These dental- or orofacial-derived MSCs possess self-renewal and multilineage differentiation capacities. The craniofacial system is composed of complex hard and soft tissues derived from sophisticated processes starting with embryonic development. Because of the complexity of the craniofacial tissues, the application of stem cells presents challenges in terms of the size, shape, and form of the engineered structures, the specialized final developed cells, and the modulation of timely blood supply while limiting inflammatory and immunological responses. The cell delivery vehicle has an important role in the in vivo performance of stem cells and could dictate the success of the regenerative therapy. Among the available hydrogel biomaterials for cell encapsulation, alginate-based hydrogels have shown promising results in biomedical applications. Alginate scaffolds encapsulating MSCs can provide a suitable microenvironment for cell viability and differentiation for tissue regeneration applications. This review aims to summarize current applications of dental-derived stem cell therapy and highlight the use of alginate-based hydrogels for applications in craniofacial tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Division of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: Student, Department of Dental Research, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Jackson T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Seagroves
authors.affiliation: Postdoctoral research fellow, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Dental Medicine University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
authors.forename: Chider
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor and Program Director, Graduate Program in Prosthodontics, Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
authors.forename: Kumar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: Professor, Division of Advanced Prosthodontics and Director, Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
authors.forename: Tara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aghaloo
authors.affiliation: Professor and Chair, Division of Advanced Prosthodontics and Director, Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor and Director, Digital Dentistry Technologies, Department of General Practice and Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dentistry, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
authors.forename: Sompop
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bencharit
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology, Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif. Electronic address: amoshaverinia@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moshaverinia
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003813:Dentistry; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells; D009055:Mouth / Q000166:cytology; D012038:Regeneration; D012886:Skull / Q000166:cytology; D023822:Tissue Engineering