Transplantation of Undifferentiated and Induced Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth-Derived Stem Cells Promote Functional Recovery of Rat Spinal Cord Contusion Injury Model

Abstract

Regarding both the neural crest origin and neuronal potential of stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED), here, we assessed their potential in addition to neural induced SHED (iSHED) for functional recovery when transplanted in a rat model for acute contused spinal cord injury (SCI). Following transplantation, a significant functional recovery was observed in both groups relative to the vehicle and control groups as determined by the open field locomotor functional test. We also observed that animals that received iSHED were in a better state as compared with the SHED group. Immunohistofluorescence evaluation 5 weeks after transplantation showed neuronal and glial differentiation and limited proliferation in both groups. However, myelin basic protein and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan NG2-oligodendrocyte markers-were increased and glial fibrillary acidic protein-astrocyte marker-was decreased in the iSHED group in comparison with the SHED group. These findings have demonstrated that transplantation of SHED or its derivatives could be a suitable candidate for the treatment of SCI as well as other neuronal degenerative diseases.

Stem Cells of Dental Origin: Current Research Trends and Key Milestones towards Clinical Application

“…Similar results were achieved after inducing neural maturation of SHED into dopaminergic neuron-like cells and transplantation in parkinsonian rats [150]. Moreover, transplantation of neural-induced SHED in a rat Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) model led to complete recovery of hindlimb motor function [148]. All of the above studies support that neural preinduction of undifferentiated MSCs before in vivo transplantation increases the expression of neural surface receptors and therefore the grafting efficiency into the nervous system, potentially improving clinical outcomes.…”

“…Regarding the neuroinductive culture media, most studies use either the Neurobasal A or conventional primarily Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM)/F12 media in their neural differentiation protocols. These are used in conjunction with various neural supplements (most commonly the B27 [36, 125, 142, 144, 148, 149], but also the N2 consisting of a mixture of insulin, transferrin, progesterone, selenium, and putrescine [137] and the insulin-transferrin-selenium (ITS) supplement [54] or their combinations [143]) in a serum-free approach. Alternatively, in other studies, the media are supplemented with conventional fetal calf (FCS) or Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) at least for the first-stage preincubation phase [135].…”

Conditioned medium from the stem cells of human dental pulp improves cognitive function in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

“…These cells are thought to originate from the cranial neural crest, which expresses early markers for both MSCs and neural stem cells [26][27][28], and can differentiate into functional neurons and oligodendrocytes under the appropriate conditions [28][29][30]. The engraftment of these dental pulp stem cells promotes the functional recovery from various acute and chronic CNS insults through paracrine mechanisms that activate endogenous tissuerepairing activities [28,[31][32][33][34][35][36]. Here, we examined the therapeutic benefits of SHED-CM for mouse AD-like model.…”

Graft of a Tissue-Engineered Neural Scaffold Serves as a Promising Strategy to Restore Myelination after Rat Spinal Cord Transection

“…The present results have provided evidence supporting the use of a preconstructed neural network scaffold that has an optimal myelination potential in vitro. Unlike studies by others in which transplanted stem cells or progenitor cells were used to restore myelination [11,31,32], we have transplanted a preconstructed tissueengineered neural scaffold to serve as potential conduits in neural repair in SCI.…”