ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Periodontitis is a destructive inflammatory disorder of the periodontium caused by the destruction of periodontal tissues namely the PDL, cementum, alveolar bone, and gingiva. Once these tissues are lost, the foremost goal of periodontal therapy is to regenerate the diseased tissues if possible to their original form, architecture, and function. Various regenerative procedures were employed and still a gap was found in achieving the goal. As stem cells are characterized by their ability to self-renew and differentiate to produce specialized cells, there could be a possibility of using them for regenerative therapy. Recently, dental tissues such as the PDL, the dental pulp and the tooth follicle have been recognized as readily available sources of adult stem cells. AIM: The aim was to identify the various sources and methodologies in isolation of stem cells from human oral cavity and its differentiation into various lineages using markers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The electronic databases PUBMED, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, SCIENCE DIRECT, COCHRANE LIBRARY along with a complimentary manual search of all periodontics journal till the year 2016. Thirteen articles were selected on the basis of the inclusion criteria. Isolation of stem cells from oral cavity through various methods has been evaluated and similarly characterization to different lineages were tabulated as variables of interest. They included human in-vitro and ex-vivo studies. RESULTS: The results showed that PDLSC's and pulpal stem cells are the most common source from where stem cells were isolated. Each source has used different methodology in isolating the stem cells and it was found that STRO-1 was the commonly used marker in all the studies mentioned. CONCLUSIONS: The studies showed that there is no standard protocol existed in isolating the stem cells from different sources of oral cavity. Moreover, there was no standard marker or methodology used in characterization.