Page 457 - Read Online

Citterio et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2020;7:41 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2020.29 Aesthetic Research

Review Open Access

Stem cells and periodontal regeneration: present
and future

Filippo Citterio, Giacomo Gualini, Ludovica Fierravanti, Mario Aimetti

Department of Surgical Sciences, Periodontology, C.I.R. Dental School, Turin 10126, Italy.
Correspondence to: Dr. Filippo Citterio, Department of Surgical Sciences, Periodontology, C.I.R. Dental School, Turin 10126, Italy.
E-mail: filippo.citterio@unito.it

How to cite this article: Citterio F, Gualini G, Fierravanti L, Aimetti M. Stem cells and periodontal regeneration: present and
future. Plast Aesthet Res 2020;7:41. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2020.29

Received: 20 Feb 2020 First Decision: 6 May 2020 Revised: 17 Jun 2020 Accepted: 28 Jun 2020 Published: 15 Aug 2020

Academic Editor: Yi-Lin Cao Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
The ultimate goal of periodontal regeneration is to restore the damaged alveolar bone proper, root cementum, and
periodontal ligament with collagen fibers inserted into the root surface. The search for new regenerative strategies
is a challenging field of periodontal research, and tissue engineering, using stem cells, has recently been shown
as a promising approach. This paper aims at reviewing the current available literature on the use of stem cells for
the treatment of periodontitis. Up to now, different mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown potential for
periodontal regeneration in animal studies. The most investigated MSCs for periodontal regeneration are bone
marrow MSCs (BMMSCs), periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs), and dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), which
have shown very promising results in animal models. Few studies on humans are available but BMMSCs, PDLSCs,
and DPSCs have been proven safe and effective. Clinical trials are sparse, but tend to support the efficacy of MSCs
for periodontal regeneration. In the future, more human studies will be required to support the use of MSCs in
daily clinical practice, especially in order to identify the best protocol to harvest, process, and graft MSCs. Future
perspectives include trans-differentiation of somatic cells to generate induced pluripotent stem cells, homing
procedures, the use of exogenous stem cells, and 3D-printed scaffolds.

Keywords: Stem cells, regeneration, periodontology, tissue engineering, bone defects

INTRODUCTION
Stem cells and tissue engineering have recently been introduced into the field of periodontology and
they have shown encouraging potential in the treatment of periodontitis, which is a complex immune-

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

www.parjournal.net