Tooth regeneration is considered to be an optimistic approach to replace current treatments for tooth loss. It is important to\ndetermine the most suitable seed cells for tooth regeneration. Recently, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs)\nhave been regarded as a promising candidate for tissue regeneration. However, it has not been reported whether hUCMSCs can\nbe employed in tooth regeneration. Here, we report that hUCMSCs can be induced into odontoblast-like cells in vitro and in vivo.\nInduced hUCMSCs expressed dentin-related proteins including dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and dentin matrix protein-1 (DMP-1),\nand their gene expression levels were similar to those in native pulp tissue cells.Moreover, DSP- and DMP-1-positive calcifications\nwere observed after implantation of hUCMSCs in vivo.These findings reveal that hUCMSCs have an odontogenic differentiation\npotency to differentiate to odontoblast-like cells with characteristic deposition of dentin-like matrix in vivo. This study clearly\ndemonstrates hUCMSCs as an alternative therapeutic cell source for tooth regeneration
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