Dentistry Stem Cells Have Received a Great

Dentistry

Stem cells have received a great deal of attention over the past ten years or so. Initially they were in the news because of the great promise they held because of the possibility that stem cells could cure diseases like Parkinson's, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other medical problems. Then stem cells were in the news because President George W. Bush issued an executive order banning the use of federal money for stem cell research. But since President Barack Obama has been in office the use of stem cells in research has begun again. The article reviewed in this paper is about how stem cells might be able one day to actually help "bone regeneration" and to help people with bad teeth to form "…specialized dentin, bone, and neuronal cells" (Narang, et al., 2012, p. 150).

Stem Cells in Dentistry

Stem cells are "primitive cells" that can be found in "all multi-cellular organisms that are characterized by self-renewal," Narang explains (150). The stem cells that are called "mesenchymal stem cells" can be harvested from a number of places in the body, including the bone marrow, the liver, the umbilical cord and even teeth. Why are stem cells important to science in terms of their applications for humans? Stem cells are capable of "continuously" producing "daughter cells" that have the same characteristics as themselves. Stem cells can generate "daughter cells that have different, more restricted properties," and also these cells can "re-populate a host" (Narang, 150).

How will stem cells be applied to dentistry? Researchers realized about twenty years ago that stem cells might be found in periodontal tissues, according to Narang. At this point in the article the authors become highly technical and use language that reflects the science that is cementoblasts associated with stem cells. Periodontal (that part of the mouth that surrounds the teeth, including gums) regeneration is "…essentially a re-enhancement of the development process," Narang explains (152). And the technical research that looks into the periodontal process "supports the concept that some mesenchymal stem cells remain within the periodontal ligament and are responsible for tissue homeostasis" (Narang, 152).

What the author is saying here is that there are stem cells in the periodontal portion of the mouth and those cells have been regenerating themselves all along, giving the mouth new cells in exactly the place where the older cells were. In technical language, Narang writes that the mesenchymal stem cells have served as a "…source of renewable progenitor cells" that generate "cementoblasts, and fibroblasts throughout adult life" (152). To put the mesenchymal stem cells into context, cementoblasts are the cells that are responsible for forming "cementurn" on the root of the dentin of teeth that are in the development stage, and fibroblasts are cells that are found on connective tissue in the mouth and they produce collagen. Collagen is a protein that is very important for providing elasticity and for the continuing renewal of cells.