Neurogenic potential of mouse dental pulp stem cells

What is it about?

We showed that stem cells isolated from dental pulp of mice teeth can be induced to develop into networks of cells that displayed several properties in common with networks of developing brain cells. Although they didn't develop into fully fledged neurons, this is probably a matter of getting the timing right and providing the right conditions. In the meantime, these cells provide an interesting model system to study development and control of neuronal differentiation in the brain.

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Why is it important?

Ultimately, we want to use cells from a patient's own teeth in 'tailor-made' brain therapy that might be useful months or even years after an event such as a stroke has occurred, but without the rejection issues that come from using donor cells. The tricky bit is getting them to develop into the right kind of cells to achieve the desired outcome. The mouse dental pulp cells provide a useful new tool for figuring out how to do that.