Scaffold-Free Facial Nerve Conduit Engineered Using Dental Pulp Stem Cells

The overall goal of this study is to enhance facial nerve repair by developing a scaffold-free, cellular-engineered nerve conduit that will induce axon regeneration via delivery of neurotrophic factors (NTF) and direct axon growth by providing guidance cues. The significance of this work lies in the development of a biological alternative to autograft tissues that can accelerate healing and functional outcome in damaged facial nerves. Our prior work shows that we can utilize dental pulp cells (DPC) to form robust cell sheets on smooth substrates that produce significant amounts of NTFs to induce neurite extension in neurons.
Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery - Category: ENT & OMF Authors: Source Type: research