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LOS ANGELES, Calif., USA: Recently, researchers identified mesenchymal stem cells, which have the capacity to become any type of fully developed cell, in the gingiva. To date, the abilities of these stem cells are not fully understood by researchers. However, the new study found that they may have a significant role in gingival immune defense and wound healing.
In particular, the study found that there are two types of gingival stem cells. About 10 percent arise from the mesodermal layer during embryonic development and around 90 percent are derived from cranial neural crest cells, which show an elevated capacity to differentiate into neural cells and chondrocytes, as well as to modulate immune cells. In addition, tests on mice demonstrated that these cells had a greater healing effect on inflammatory disease than their counterparts did.
As the tooth and surrounding tissue are a rich source of stem cells, the gingiva, an easily accessible tissue, is an attractive source of stem cells that can be used in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to reconstruct damaged human tissue, muscles or organs, the researchers concluded.
In order to learn more about the possible medical implications of the findings, the researchers will conduct further work on analyzing the details of the gingival stem cells, especially their notable immunoregulatory property, said Xingtian Xu, author and specialized laboratory technician at the University of Southern California's Ostrow School of Dentistry, where the study was conducted.
The study, titled "Gingivae Contain Neural-crest- and Mesoderm-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells," was published online on July 18 in the Journal of Dental Research ahead of print.
