Dental Stem Cells Promote Retinal Regeneration New Study Shows
Dental Stem Cells Promote Retinal Regeneration, New Study Shows Vision loss can have devastating consequences—affecting individuals’ ability to remain independent and negatively impacting their quality of life. Some of the most common causes of vision loss include macular degeneration, glaucoma,
Dental Stem Cells Promote Retinal Regeneration, New Study Shows
Vision loss can have devastating consequences—affecting individuals’ ability to remain independent and negatively impacting their quality of life. Some of the most common causes of vision loss include macular degeneration, glaucoma, detached retina, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts. When retinal ganglion cells are lost, as is the case with glaucoma, they cannot be replaced. For this reason, a team of molecular neuroscientists, led by Ben Mead, a doctoral student in the Molecular Neuroscience Group, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, sought to test a therapeutic approach to repair retinal ganglion cells. The team discovered that dental pulp stem cells, which are potent and easily harvested from adult teeth, have the ability to regenerate such cells.
To reach this conclusion, scientists transplanted dental pulp stem cells into traumatized optic nerves. “We found that the cells survived for 21 days in the eye and did not engraft or migrate into any tissues,” Mead reports in an interview published by MedicalResearch.com. When compared to the more widely studied method of injecting the eye with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, the team found the dental pulp stem cells yielded more favorable results.
Study authors assert that the use of stem cell therapy in treating traumatic and degenerative ocular conditions is promising. This study, “Dental Pulp Stem Cells, A Paracrine-Mediated Therapy For the Retina,” was published online in May in Neural Regeneration Research.
Hygiene Connection E-Newsletter
August 2014
