Dental mesenchymal stromal/stem cells in different microenvironments— implications in regenerative therapy

Figure 1 Schematic drawing illustrating sources of human dental tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells. DFSCs: Dental follicle stem cells; DPSCs: Dental pulp stem cells; GMSCs: Gingival mesenchymal stem cells; PDLSCs: Periodontal ligament stem cells; SCAPs: Stem cells from the dental apical papilla; SHEDs: Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth.

Figure 2 Properties of mesenchymal stem cells. mesenchymal stem cells are the population of multipotent stromal cells present in adult and perinatal tissues where they participate in maintaining of homeostasis. Due to their self-renewal capacity, differentiation potential into specialized cells of mesodermal origin and immunomodulatory features, these undifferentiated cells can be potentially applied in regenerative medicine and cell therapy.

Figure 3 Functional properties and differences among dental mesenchymal stem cells. Dental mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are involved in dental tissues regeneration which is influenced by local microenvironment of the tissues they reside in. Overall, all dental MSCs represent good candidates for tissue regeneration, however their capacities differ (shown in table on the right). > , < and ~ represent higher, lower or similar capacity/rate respectively; The numbers in square brackets indicate the references. DFSCs: Dental follicle stem cells; DPSCs: Dental pulp stem cells; GMSCs: Gingival mesenchymal stem cells; PDLSCs: Periodontal ligament stem cells; SCAPs: Stem cells from the dental apical papilla; SHEDs: Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth.