Characterization and analysis of stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth of children with and without cleft lip and palate

Background: Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) have been considered a promising resource for regenerative medicine due to the ease of obtainment, noninvasive collection, and availability of deciduous teeth. Aims and Objectives: This study compared the characterization of SHED between children with and without cleft lip and palate (CLP), aiming at analyzing whether autologous SHED can be considered an option to be used as an alternative in the reconstruction of alveolar clefts in individuals with CLP. Materials and Methods: Dental pulp tissues were obtained from 6 healthy deciduous teeth at the exfoliation stage, from donors aged between 4 and 12 years, and divided into the control group and cleft group. The dental pulp cells obtained in the primary culture were immunophenotypically analyzed. Cells that showed positive for expressions of the cell surface markers and negative for were collected. The cells were submitted to multilineage differentiation and morphologically analyzed. The immunophenotypic difference between the groups was analyzed using Student’s t test, with a significance level of 5% ( P < 0.05). Results: Plastic adhesion was demonstrated and high levels of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) markers were identified in both groups, with positive expression of CD105, CD73, and CD90 (≥95% positive) and absence of hematopoietic lineage markers CD45, CD34, CD11b, CD19, and HLA RD (≤2% positive). Pulp cells demonstrated capacity for adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation. The morphological analysis identified a slightly smaller nucleus and decreased proliferative capacity in the cleft group. There was a statistically significant difference ( P = 0.042) in the comparison of the cells obtained after immunophenotypic analysis between the groups. After validating the standard criteria for defining multipotent MSCs in both groups, the isolation and characterization of SHED were confirmed in all samples. Conclusion: SHED characterization of both groups was similar. These results suggest that SHED of children with CLP may be considered an option for future investigations on the autologous use of cells for therapeutic intervention.