Otaki Sayuri, Ueshima Shigeru, Shiraishi Kohei, Sugiyama Kazuo, Hamada Suguru, Yorimoto Masatomo, Matsuo Osamu
Department of Plastic Surgery, Kinki University School of Medicine, Ohnohigashi 377-2, Osakasayama-shi, Osaka 589-8511, Japan.
Cell Biol Int. 2007 Oct;31(10):1191-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cellbi.2007.04.001. Epub 2007 Apr 14.
The technique of tissue engineering is developing for the restoration of lost tissues. This new technique requires cells that fabricate tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow have been used as the cell source for this technique; however, dental pulp cells have recently been shown to possess stem-cell-like properties. We earlier demonstrated that dental pulp cells proliferate and produce an extracellular matrix that subsequently becomes mineralized in vitro. We now report that such dental pulp cells (first to eighth passage) produced bone instead of dentin when those cells were implanted into subcutaneous sites in immunocompromised mice with HA/TCP powder as their carrier. This evidence shows that dental pulp cells are the common progenitors of odontoblasts and osteoblasts, or dental pulp cells are mesenchymal stem cells themselves. It is expected that dental pulp cells can be a useful candidate cell source for tissue engineering, and contain the potential of new therapeutic approaches for the restoration of damaged or diseased tissue.
组织工程技术正在发展以修复受损组织。这项新技术需要能够制造组织的细胞。骨髓间充质干细胞已被用作该技术的细胞来源；然而，最近研究表明牙髓细胞具有干细胞样特性。我们之前证明牙髓细胞能够增殖并产生随后在体外矿化的细胞外基质。我们现在报告，当将这些牙髓细胞（传代一至八次）以HA/TCP粉末作为载体植入免疫缺陷小鼠的皮下部位时，它们形成的是骨而非牙本质。这一证据表明牙髓细胞是成牙本质细胞和成骨细胞的共同祖细胞，或者牙髓细胞本身就是间充质干细胞。预计牙髓细胞可成为组织工程中有用的候选细胞来源，并具有修复受损或患病组织的新治疗方法的潜力。
