Tooth in the Brain: Tooth Mesenchymal Stem Cells Made into Neurons

Sunday August 10th, 2008 @ 15:18:00 EST

From Category: Neural

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Kaohsiung, Taiwan -

The ability of mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into neurons and neuron-like cells has been documented. For example, mesenchymal stem cells have been demonstrated to be beneficial in case reports of multiple sclerosis, as well as in early clinical trials. Usually mesenchymal stem cells are extracted from the bone marrow, or cord blood, or cells similar in some manner to mesenchymal stem cells have been found in the menstrual blood. Mesenchymal stem cells have even been found in the eye and in teeth.

Given the ease of extraction, tooth mesenchymal stem cells offer a lot of promise. The question of whether they behave like mesenchymal stem cells from other sources, however remains to be answered. Previous studies have demonstrated that tooth derived mesenchymal stem cells had regenerative activity in an animal model of heart attack. In a recent paper (Huang et al. Putative Dental Pulp Derived Stem/Stromal Cells Promote Proliferation and Differentiation of Endogenous Neural Cells in the Hippocampus of Mice. Stem Cells 2008 Aug 7) the ability of tooth derived mesenchymal stem cells to form nervous system tissue and behave in the brain was examined. The researchers generated mesenchymal stem cells from the dental pulp of rhesus monkeys and showed that the cells expressed classical stem cell associated markers such as Oct-4 and Nanog. Additionally, the mesenchymal stem cells were capable of differentiating into neural and glial tissue in vitro.

The scientists implanted the cells into the hippocampus of immune suppressed mice and demonstrated that endogenous mouse neural precursor cells were recruited to the area of implantation and started forming additional mature neurons. Additionally, high concentrations of neurotrophic growth factors were released.

These data support the continued exploration of tooth derived mesenchymal stem cells as an alternative to bone marrow. Unfortunately, the harvest of most optimum mesenchymal stem cells comes from baby teeth, and similar to cord blood, many of us have not saved it. On the brighter side, mesenchymal stem cells work across allogeneic barriers for certain conditions, so this is not really an issue.

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