Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
J Dent Res. 2014 Mar;93(3):250-5. doi: 10.1177/0022034513517901. Epub 2014 Jan 8.
A major cause of apical periodontitis after endodontic treatment is the bacterial infiltration which could have been challenged by the presence of a vital pulp. In this study, self-assembled, scaffoldless, three-dimensional (3D) tissues were engineered from dental pulp cells (DPCs) and assessed as a device for pulp regeneration. These engineered tissues were placed into the canal space of human tooth root segments that were capped on one end with calcium phosphate cement, and the entire system was implanted subcutaneously into mice. Histological staining indicated that after three- and five-month implantations, tooth roots containing 3D scaffoldless engineered tissues maintained a cellular, fibrous tissue throughout, whereas empty tooth roots remained predominantly empty. Immunostaining indicated that the tissue found in the root canals containing scaffoldless DPC engineered tissues was vascular, as characterized by the expression of CD31, and contained odontoblast-like cells organized along the length of the root wall as assessed by immunostaining for dentin sialoprotein. This study shows that 3D self-assembled scaffoldless DPC engineered tissues can regenerate a vital dental pulp-like tissue in a tooth root canal system and are therefore promising for endodontic therapy.
牙髓治疗后发生根尖周炎的一个主要原因是细菌渗透，而活髓的存在可能会对其造成挑战。在这项研究中，我们从牙髓细胞（DPC）中构建了自组装、无支架的三维（3D）组织，并将其评估为牙髓再生的一种装置。这些工程化组织被放置到人类牙根段的根管空间中，牙根段的一端用磷酸钙水泥封闭，整个系统被植入小鼠的皮下。组织学染色表明，在植入 3 个月和 5 个月后，含有 3D 无支架工程化组织的牙根保持了整个细胞纤维组织，而空牙根仍然主要为空的。免疫染色表明，在含有无支架 DPC 工程化组织的根管中发现的组织是血管组织，其特征是 CD31 的表达，并含有牙本质涎蛋白免疫染色评估的沿牙根壁长度排列的成牙本质细胞样细胞。这项研究表明，3D 自组装无支架 DPC 工程化组织可以在牙根根管系统中再生类似活牙髓的组织，因此有望用于牙髓治疗。
