Isolation and culture of dental pulp stem cells from permanent and deciduous teeth

OBJECTIVE: To isolate dental pulp mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from non-infected human permanent and deciduous teeth. METHODS: It was an in-vitro experimental study. Human teeth were collected from 13 apparently healthy subjects including nine adults and four children. After decoronation dental pulps were extirpated from teeth and cultured via explant method in a stem cell defined media. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics. RESULTS: As above MSCs emerged exhibiting fibroblast-like morphology. In vitro culture was positive for 100% (9/9) and 75% (3/4) of the permanent and deciduous teeth respectively. First cell appeared from deciduous teeth pulp in 10±6.2 days while permanent teeth pulp took 12.4±3.7 days. Together, 26.6±3.6 and 24.5±3.5 days were required for permanent and deciduous tooth pulp stem cells to be ready for further assays. CONCLUSIONS: The protocol we developed is easy and consistent and can be used to generate reliable source of MScs for engineering of calcified and non-calcified tissue for regenerative medicine approaches.