Published online Aug 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i7.1010
Peer-review started: October 14, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: June 8, 2015
Accepted: June 18, 2015
Article in press: June 19, 2015
Published online: August 26, 2015
Processing time: 317 Days and 16.4 Hours
Medical research in regenerative medicine and cell-based therapy has brought encouraging perspectives for the use of stem cells in clinical trials. Multiple types of stem cells, from progenitors to pluripotent stem cells, have been investigated. Among these, dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) are mesenchymal multipotent cells coming from the dental pulp, which is the soft tissue within teeth. They represent an interesting adult stem cell source because they are recovered in large amount in dental pulps with non-invasive techniques compared to other adult stem cell sources. DPSCs can be obtained from discarded teeth, especially wisdom teeth extracted for orthodontic reasons. To shift from promising preclinical results to therapeutic applications to human, DPSCs must be prepared in clinical grade lots and transformed into advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP). As the production of patient-specific stem cells is costly and time-consuming, allogenic biobanking of clinical grade human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-typed DPSC lines provides efficient innovative therapeutic products. DPSC biobanks represent industrial and therapeutic innovations by using discarded biological tissues (dental pulps) as a source of mesenchymal stem cells to produce and store, in good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions, DPSC therapeutic batches. In this review, we discuss about the challenges to transfer biological samples from a donor to HLA-typed DPSC therapeutic lots, following regulations, GMP guidelines and ethical principles. We also present some clinical applications, for which there is no efficient therapeutics so far, but that DPSCs-based ATMP could potentially treat.
Core tip: To achieve clinical applications, stem cell-based therapy must shift from lab experimentation to clinical grade stem cells. We present here the development of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) by the banking of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) for allogenic use. The dental pulp represents an efficient tool for industrial applications due to its accessibility after wisdom teeth extraction for orthodontic purpose. DPSC therapeutic batches can be produced in good manufacturing practice condition after human leukocyte antigen typing and stored in allogenic biobanks. We propose some clinical applications, for which there is no efficient therapeutics so far, but that DPSCs-based ATMP could potentially treat.