Bone Tissue Regeneration in the Oral and Maxillofacial Region: A Review on the Application of Stem Cells and New Strategies to Improve Vascularization

Figure 1

Overview of stem cell sources and their stage (undifferentiated, early differentiated, or differentiated) of application. Adult stem cells that are currently applied in clinical studies are retrieved from bone marrow, adipose, or dental tissue (a). These cells are applied in an undifferentiated, early differentiated, or differentiated stage seeded on a scaffold (b). The scaffold with the stem cells is applied in clinical trials to regenerate bone defects, such as mandibular bone defects (c). Embryonic stem cells and somatic stem cells, which are first stimulated into induced pluripotent stem cells (d), are applied in a (early) differentiated stage on a scaffold (e). Their application in clinical trials still needs to be envisioned (c). Note that in the mandibular bone defect shown (c), the stem cells are undifferentiated. However, the stem cells applied in such bone defects could be also early differentiated or differentiated.