Epithelial stem cells from oral mucosa: isolation, characterization and response to injury

Abstract

The oral mucosa has increasingly calling attention of the literature as a source of cells for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It is recognized that the epithelial tissue is maintained by a progeny of particular cells, called stem cells, which are self maintained and characteristically present higher proliferative potential and capacity to differentiate into other types that constitute the tissue. Until now, it is known that the epithelial stem cells are rare and located in specific niches, but their isolation remains a challenge. Herein we propose to identify and isolate a population of progenitors/stem cells from oral keratinocytes cultures. Once isolated, we will characterize the different clones by proliferation assays; surface cell markers and their capacity to differentiate and reconstruct the layers of the epithelium and respond to injury. (AU)