Bioethics in Reusing of Biomedical Waste in Regenerative Dentistry

Stem cell-based therapies are the most promising breakthrough in almost all the fields of medicine. Despite stem cells are widely investigated, scientific community is still debating if stemness is a peculiar ability of a specific cytotype or if any differentiated cell may adopt stem-cell-like properties, according to an organ’s needs. Resident stem cells undergo to changes in chromatin structure depending from stimulus-responsive transcriptional programs highlighting how stem cells can be induced during both embryonic development and adult tissue regeneration in several different tissues, regardless of their biological niche. Biological wastes are usually considered as matter to be discharged, but in the last years, especially after the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Randy Schekman, the interest toward the re-use of wasted tissues has become a hot topic in biomedical research.