Applicability of tooth derived stem cells in neural regeneration

Within the nervous system, regeneration is limited, and this is due to the small amount of neural stem cells, the inhibitory origin of the stem cell niche and often to the development of a scar which constitutes a mechanical barrier for the regeneration. Regarding these aspects, many efforts have been done in the research of a cell component that combined with scaffolds and growth factors could be suitable for nervous regeneration in regenerative medicine approaches. Autologous mesenchymal stem cells represent nowadays the ideal candidate for this aim, thank to their multipotency and to their amount inside adult tissues. However, issues in their harvesting, through the use of invasive techniques, and problems involved in their ageing, require the research of new autologous sources. To this purpose, the recent discovery of a stem cells component in teeth, and which derive from neural crest cells, has came to the light the possibility of using dental stem cells in nervous system regeneration. In this work, in order to give guidelines on the use of dental stem cells for neural regeneration, we briefly introduce the concepts of regeneration and regenerative medicine, we then focus the attention on odontogenesis, which involves the formation and the presence of a stem component in different parts of teeth, and finally we describe some experimental approaches which are exploiting dental stem cells for neural studies.