Research progress on applications of hDPSCs in cornea reconstruction

Abstract:

The corneal reconstruction is tosurgial recover the structure integrity and corneal function after suffered from various trauma, inflammation and degenerative diseases. The corneal diseases caused millions of people worldwide suffering from eyesight damages and even blindness. At present, the corneal transplant is the main therapy for corneal blindness. However, the shortage in donor corneal issue is a worldwide problem and the failure due to the immunologic rejection of host is common. Nowadays, with the development of tissue culture and bioengineering technology, the application prospect of autologous stem cell transplantation is becoming more and more popular which might replace the allogeneic transplantation, becoming an important clinical treatment of regenerative medicine. Human dental pulp stem cells(hDPSCs)is a class of adult stem cell divided from the third molar teeth. Both hDPSCs and corneal cell are from the cranial nerve in embryonic ectoderm. Extensive researches show that the hDPSCs have the potentialities in corneal cell differentiation without causing immunologic rejection of the recipient. These findings manifested the potentials of hDPSCs in the clinical applications related to ocular surface reconstruction. In this paper, the features and current investigation status of hDPSCs in ocular surface reconstruction are reviewed.

Key words:cornea; reconstruction; human dental pulp stem cells