About this Research Topic
The cranio-facial area, in particular bones and teeth, is prone to trauma, congenital malformations and acquired diseases, in which tissue loss causes esthetic and functional disabilities and often requires difficult reconstructions. The current treatments, essentially auto- or allografts for bone, endodontics, implants or prosthesis for teeth, are on the whole not satisfactory. In this context, the development of tissue engineering approaches combining different types of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells or progenitors with scaffolds and molecules has raised enormous interest since it may lead to physiological types of repair. MSC-like cells are known to display a capacity to 1) differentiate into distinct mesenchymal phenotypes, 2) induce a regenerative environment through their high secretion of bioactive molecules, 3) promote angiogenesis and eventually neurogenesis, 4) recruit tissue intrinsic stem or progenitor cells and 5) modulate inflammation to promote tissue repair. Nevertheless, stem cell-based therapeutical approaches have so far been disappointing with inconsistent preclinical and clinical trial outcomes attributed primarily to poor cell survival and engraftment after implantation related to the harsh microenvironment of the defects.
This Research Topic aims to bring together a collection of manuscripts that address the question of MSC-like cell priming for improving their involvement in craniofacial bone and tooth repair.
We expect that this will improve and promote exchange of information among stem cell and tissue engineering researchers and cross-fertilize further scientific progress for improving functional craniofacial skeletal tissue regeneration.
The scope should include studies on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the priming action with particular emphasis on the epigenetic, metabolic, host response modifications together with in-vivo evaluations.
Keywords: Stem cells, Craniofacial, Tissue engineering, Tissue regeneration, Priming
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
