Adult stem cells in the use of jaw bone regeneration: current and prospective research.

Concomitant to the increased use of dental implants to replace lost dentition, there is a growing need to regenerate atrophic jaw bone to allow dental implant placement. Current surgical techniques for jaw bone augmentation share several limitations, such as operator sensitivity and relatively low predictability and high morbidity rates. Therefore, alternative treatment approaches have been developed in the field of tissue engineering. Bone tissue engineering integrates the use of different scaffolds, growth factors, and stem cells. This method aims to induce bone augmentation of large bone defects by mimicking biologic processes that occur during embryogenesis. This review will present available sources for adult stem cells, the rationale for using stem cells for bone regeneration, and recent studies that use mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) to induce bone augmentation.