Introduzione alle cellule staminali e all’endodonzia rigenerativa

The practice of dentistry is likely to be revolutionized by biological therapies based on growth and differentiation factors, scaffold materials and stem cells. This approach, called regenerative dentistry, is becoming a promising field of research which aims to replace, repair and regenerate dental tissues in order to restore the biological function that has been halted or compromised by injury or disease. The present review represent an introduction to stem cell biology, with special emphasis on stem cells derived from dental tissues. Since there has been a burst of interest, even at mass media level, for the potential possibility to built teeth in the laboratories, more patients are becoming aware of new treatment options, like those based on stem cells, as potentially available in the clinical practice. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to make the endodontic practitioners able to answer patient’s questions on stem cells, their properties and their potential use in regenerative endodontics and medicine.