Dental stem cell companies are companies that preserve the valuable cells contained with dental structures. While stem cells from teeth have not yet been approved for therapeutic use in humans, there is great potential for their use within regenerative medicine.
In this article:
- Storing Stem Cells from Teeth
- Cord Blood Banks Offering Dental Stem Cell Storage
- Companies Specializing in Dental Stem Cell Storage
Simply put, dental stem cell companies collect and preserve cells from teeth. Dental pulp is the soft living tissue inside a tooth that contains adult stem cells. The ideal time to harvest dental stem cells is when children lose their baby teeth through natural loss or extraction by a dentist. Although dental pulp gets the most attention, there are stem cell and progenitor cells present in other oral structures as well.
Types of Dental Stem Cells
Five different types of dental stem cells have been discovered, which include:
- Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) – These are stem cells isolated from the dental pulp of human third molars
- Dental follicle progenitor cells (DFPCs) – The dental follicle contains periodontal progenitor cells
- Stem cells from apical papilla (SCAP) – Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are present in the apical papilla of permanent immature teeth
- Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) – These cells are present in the periodontal tissue that surround the teeth
- Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) – These cells are present within the dental pulp tissue of deciduous (baby) teeth
Cord Blood Banks Offering Dental Stem Cell Storage
The following companies offer dental stem cells storage as part of a diversified stem cell storage approach. The core business of these companies is cord blood banking, which is the storage of umbilical cord blood and tissue because of the rich population of stem cells these tissues contain.
Similar to cord blood banking, dental stem cell banking involves stem cell collection, processing, and long-term storage. Therefore, it can be an excellent service addition for these companies.
- Future Health Biobank (Nottingham, UK)
- GeneCell International (Miami, FL)
- VAULT SC Inc (Palm Coast, FL)
- Transcell Biologics Pvt Ltd (Hyderabad, India)
- ReeLabs (Mumbai, India)
- Precious Cells Group (PCG) (London, UK) – Unfortunately, PCG went out of business in March 2018
Companies Specializing in Dental Stem Cell Storage
In addition, specialty companies also exist that are focused exclusively on dental stem cell storage.
The major players in this area include:
- BioEden (Austin, TX)
- Bank A Tooth, a Singapore-incorporated company specializing in dental stem cell banking, is a product of Prolife Biobank (Singapore)
- DentCell (Naucalpan, Mexico) – Now owned by Cryoholdco, a consolidator of cord blood and tissue banks in Latin America
- National Dental Pulp Laboratory (Marlborough, MA)
- Stemade (Mumbai, India)
- Stemodontics (USA)
- StemSave (New York, NY)
- “Store-a-Tooth” run by Provia Laboratories, LLC (Littleton, MA)
- Tooth Bank (Brownsburg, IN)
Currently, the regions most involved with dental stem cell storage include the United States, India, and the United Kingdom, respectively.