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Updated: Apr 12, 2026
Author Spotlight: Advancing Tissue Regeneration and Disease Modeling with Dental Pulp Stem Cells
Published on: May 5, 2023
Enrichment and Schwann Cell Differentiation of Neural Crest-derived Dental Pulp Stem Cells
Heba Al-Zer1, Christian Apel2, Max Heiland3
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany h.al-zer@uke.de alzer_heba@yahoo.com.
Background/Aim:
As already described in previous studies, neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) can be found in adult human dental pulp. The present study investigated the methodology for enrichment and differentiation-induction of the above mentioned cells.
Materials And Methods:
Dental pulp was extracted from human wisdom teeth of four patients and subsequently cultured as explants on fibronectin-coated plates in neurobasal medium supplemented with B27, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin, l-glutamine and neuregulin-β1. The cells were then characterized by immunofluorescence, while their differentiation-potential was tested by the attempt to induce cells into different lineages, i.e. osteogenic, melanocytic and glial.
Results:
The enriched cell population expressed nestin, CD271 and SOX10, which are well-known markers for NCSCs. Consequently, the cells were successfully induced to differentiate into osteoblasts, melanocytes and Schwann cells, expressing the corresponding differentiation markers.
Conclusion:
Human adult dental pulp contains a population of stem cells with neural crest ontogeny, which can thus be recruited for multiple regenerative therapies.
