Literature Review: Comparison of the Effects of Cigarette Smoke on Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Dental Stem Cells
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types due to two important defining characteristics. First, stem cells must exhibit selfrenewal potential, which is the ability to produce identical copies of themselves through mitotic divisions over time. Second, stem cells must exhibit multilineage differentiation potential – pluripotency, which is the ability to give rise to various specialized cell types and serves as the driving concept behind stem cell regeneration. They also possess migration potential in order to reach sites of injury. These abilities allow stem cells to participate in the body’s natural processes of wound healing and tissue generation and raise the potential of using stem cells in various applications in regenerative medicine. However, certain environmental predisposing conditions such as cigarette smoke can negatively impact these abilities and stem cell viability for transplantation and regeneration. Most of the research conducted on stem cells involves mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), typically from the bone marrow. The substantial growth in this research has allowed further understanding of the deleterious effects of cigarette smoke on MSCs, as well as improved our knowledge on the therapeutic usage of MSCs for smoking patients. As of now, there is a considerable lack of research focused on dental stem cells. Given that the first exposure to smoke occurs in the oral cavity, and that the content of nicotine is estimated to be nearly 8 times higher in saliva than in blood plasma (8 hours following application of nicotine patch; saliva: 76.8 ng/ml, plasma: 10.0 ng/ml)1, the potentially more susceptible stem cell populations in the oral cavity deserve more attention. Dental stem cells share many properties with MSCs, and a disruption in their function by higher concentrations of a known inhibitor of stem cell function would create significant problems in the repair process.
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of the Pacific
Award: G4661676852
OpenAlex ID: W3209528682