Oral tissue stem cells and their potential application in regenerative medicine

Abstract:

The oral mucosa is a source of neural crest stem cells (hOMSC). Because of their origin, they are multipotent. Their harvesting is simple and does not irreversibly damage oral tissues. Given that their differentiation towards the neuroectodermal lineage is possible, the potential clinical application of hOMSC is also found in other areas of medicine (e.g. in cardiology and ophthalmology). Research on hOMSC in animal models of neurological diseases and impairments has shown their potential role in treating diseases for which today’s medicine has no answer. Therefore, a research on hOMSCs and the possibilities of their applications in the mouse ischemic stroke model was started. After successful isolation of hOMSC and after their differentiation in the neuroectodermal and mesodermal directions, it was found that it was possible to produce cocultures of mouse nerve stem cells and hOMSC, which is an indication that the cells can inhabit the environment of the injured mouse brain.

Key words:
differentiation; mouse neural stem cells; neural crest stem cells; neuroectoderm; oral mucosa