Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20251 Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine "Carl Gustav Carus", Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 May 12;24(10):8664. doi: 10.3390/ijms24108664.
Xerostomia is the phenomenon of dry mouth and is mostly caused by hypofunction of the salivary glands. This hypofunction can be caused by tumors, head and neck irradiation, hormonal changes, inflammation or autoimmune disease such as Sjögren's syndrome. It is associated with a tremendous decrease in health-related quality of life due to impairment of articulation, ingestion and oral immune defenses. Current treatment concepts mainly consist of saliva substitutes and parasympathomimetic drugs, but the outcome of these therapies is deficient. Regenerative medicine is a promising approach for the treatment of compromised tissue. For this purpose, stem cells can be utilized due to their ability to differentiate into various cell types. Dental pulp stem cells are adult stem cells that can be easily harvested from extracted teeth. They can form tissues of all three germ layers and are therefore becoming more and more popular for tissue engineering. Another potential benefit of these cells is their immunomodulatory effect. They suppress proinflammatory pathways of lymphocytes and could therefore probably be used for the treatment of chronic inflammation and autoimmune disease. These attributes make dental pulp stem cells an interesting tool for the regeneration of salivary glands and the treatment of xerostomia. Nevertheless, clinical studies are still missing. This review will highlight the current strategies for using dental pulp stem cells in the regeneration of salivary gland tissue.
口干症是口腔干燥的现象,主要由唾液腺功能低下引起。这种功能低下可由肿瘤、头颈部放疗、激素变化、炎症或自身免疫性疾病(如干燥综合征)引起。由于发音、摄入和口腔免疫防御受损,它与健康相关的生活质量显著下降有关。目前的治疗概念主要包括唾液替代物和拟副交感神经药物,但这些治疗方法的效果并不理想。再生医学是治疗受损组织的一种有前途的方法。为此,可以利用干细胞,因为它们具有分化为各种细胞类型的能力。牙髓干细胞是一种成体干细胞,可以从拔出的牙齿中轻易获得。它们可以形成三个胚层的组织,因此越来越受到组织工程的欢迎。这些细胞的另一个潜在好处是它们的免疫调节作用。它们抑制淋巴细胞的促炎途径,因此可能可用于治疗慢性炎症和自身免疫性疾病。这些特性使牙髓干细胞成为唾液腺再生和口干症治疗的一种有趣工具。然而,目前仍缺乏临床研究。本综述将重点介绍利用牙髓干细胞再生唾液腺组织的当前策略。