Oral Stem Cells: Molecular Characteristics and the Applications in Regenerative Medicine
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 26
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Endodontics, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
Interests: pulp biology; pulp regeneration; mesencymal stem cells; pulp diagnosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Regenerative medicine is a rapidly growing field that focuses on the use of stem cells to repair, replace, and regenerate damaged tissues and organs. Among the various stem cell sources, the ones derived from the oral cavity have promising therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine. Such ‘oral stem cells’ are a large group of stem cells having a variety of origins, such as dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), human exfoliated deciduous tooth-derived stem cells (SHEDs), periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs), stem cells from the apical papilla (SCAPs), oral mucosal stem cells (OMSCs), gingival mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs), or oral epithelial stem cells (OESCs). These oral stem cells can be isolated with minimally invasive methods, which adds the unique advantage of their practical usage in therapeutics compared to other stem cells.
Recent molecular biological studies have begun to elucidate cytophysiologic behavior and differentiation of oral stem cells, as well as the underlying signaling pathways, gene expression patterns, and epigenetic mechanisms. For example, DPSCs are extensively studied for spinal cord repair due to their preferable features, which were attributed to the ectomesenchyme characteristics of their origin, the neural crest. GMSCs are reported to keep MSCs characteristic at higher passages and show stronger osteogenesis capacity compared to BMSCs. Moreover, extracellular vehicles produced by those stem cells are becoming more focused recently, as they ‘inherit’ various preferable functions of the parental stem cells, including immunomodulatory effects, neuroprotection and nerve regeneration, or wound healing. Understanding the molecular bases behind these phenomena is essential to optimizing their application in tissue engineering, immunomodulation, and therapeutic development.
This Special Issue aims to collect original articles, reviews, and perspectives addressing the latest findings in the molecular mechanisms that govern the behavior of oral stem cells, as well as the recent advancements and future directions in their clinical applications.
We strongly encourage you, experts in this field, to share your knowledge and views with dentists and scientists around the world. Both research and review articles are welcomed. All manuscripts should include knowledge/information from molecular or cellular biological research.
Dr. Emi Shimizu
Dr. Motoki Okamoto
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- oral stem cells
- regenerative medicine
- molecular mechanisms
- stem cell therapy
- tissue engineering
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