Objective: Based on these facts, the aim of this study was to isolate and characterize different cell populations obtained from human alveolar bone curettage and observe if they behave as progenitor/stem cells.
Method: We carried out the isolation of enriched stem cells populations by MACS using STRO-1 and CD146. The positive and negative populations for these markers were subjected to different kinetic experiments, in vitro and in vivo cellular differentiation experiments and characterization by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.
Result: STRO1+ and CD146+ populations compared to their respective negative populations were more proliferative and clonogenic, showed higher migration capacity and number of stem cell markers, differentiated into osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic tissue in vitro, and into bone in vivo without stimulus.
Conclusion: Our results showed that it is possible to isolate progenitor/stem cells from a simple procedure such as the alveolar bone curettage after tooth extraction.