Neural stem cells (NSCs) have a high potency for differentiation to neurons and glial cells for replacement of damaged cells and paracrine effects for the regeneration and remyelination of host axons. Dental pulp is known to have a potential to differentiate into neural-like cells; therefore, dental pulp may be used as an autologous cell source for neural repair. In this study, we selectively e...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) mRNA is highly expressed by dental pulp cells (DPCs) prior to the initiation of dental pulp innervation. We show that radioactively labelled exogenous GDNF is retrogradely transported from neonatal teeth and vibrissae to the trigeminal neurons, indicating that GDNF acts as a classical neurotrophic factor in the trigeminal system. We also show t...

chronic hyperplastic pulpitis (pulp polyps) usually occurs in molar teeth of children and young adults and is characterized by an overgrowth of granulomatous tissue into the carious cavity. here, we report a rare type of pulp polyp in lower third molar of a 27-year-old woman that not only grow into carious cavity but also extruded in very large size that interfered with occluding of the teeth.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of age on the ratio of pulp cavity/tooth width (P/T ratio) in healthy cats. The dental radiographs of 32 cats (16 males and 16 females) were generated with a digital dental X-ray unit with the animals under general anesthesia. Standardized measurement of the canine teeth was performed by drawing a line on the radiograph perpendicular to the c...

Lipopolysaccharide exerts many effects on many cell lines, including cytokine secretion, and cell apoptosis and necrosis. We investigated the in vitro effects of lipopolysaccharide on apoptosis of cultured human dental pulp cells and the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax. Dental pulp cells showed morphologies typical of apoptosis after exposure to lipopolysaccharide. Flow cytometry showed that the ra...

A survey of all predoctoral pediatric dental programs in the United States was conducted to ascertain the contemporary teaching philosophies and techniques for pulp therapy in primary teeth. All 53 predoctoral programs responded to a two-part survey consisting of multiple choice questions regarding which pulp therapies and specific techniques were taught and which pulp therapies would be employ...

introduction: dental pulp has neural fibers that produce neuropeptides like substance p (sp) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (cgrp). the inflammation of dental pulp can lead to an increase amount of sp and cgrp release, especially in symptomatic irreversible pulpitis. therefore, it can be assumed that neuropeptides have some role in the progression of inflammation of the dental pulp. the ai...

Estimation of the time since death is important in forensic medicine, and so far not much is known in employing dental pulp for such purposes. The tooth organ is the hardest organ in the human body, with a loose connective tissue of dental pulp situated within a rigid encasement of mineralized surrounding tissues. Human material was obtained from 31 corpses of people who died in car and train a...

Pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs) are a class of germ line-encoded receptors that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). The activation of PRRs is crucial for the initiation of innate immunity, which plays a key role in first-line defense until more specific adaptive immunity is developed. PRRs differ in the signaling cascades and host responses activated by their engagem...

BACKGROUND Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth (SHED) have the capability to differentiate into neural cells. Neurotrophins including Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and neurotrophin-4 (NT-4) have neurogenesis, neurotrophic, or neuroprotective effects and are expressed in developing teeth. The aim of this study was to meas...