人羊水来源干细胞（hAFSC）作为一种新型干细胞，已被证明具有明确的骨向分化潜能，应用hAFSC和组织工程技术有望为牙槽骨畸形和缺损的修复重建提供新的治疗途径。目前，hAFSC的基础和应用研究尚处于起步阶段。我们的先期研究发现hAFSC较人骨髓基质干细胞（hBMSC）表现出更强的成骨能力，且添加BMP-2和BMP-7均可有效促进其骨向分化。为了进一步比较hAFSC与hBMSC的成骨能力差异，探索促进hAFSC骨向分化的有效途径，并评价hAFSC修复牙槽骨缺损的应用效果，本课题拟深入研究hAFSC与hBMSC成骨过程中的细胞生物学特征、成骨关键基因和miRNA表达的差异，并从多水平分析BMP-2/BMP-7基因共转染对hAFSC骨向分化的作用及其机制，继而将其应用于裸鼠异位成骨和大鼠牙槽骨缺损修复研究。总之，本课题兼具可行性与先进性，研究结果有望为牙槽骨缺损修复的提供新的理论依据和治疗途径。

Human amniotic fluid-derived stem cell (hAFSC), one new-type of stem cells, has been proved to be capable of osteogenic differentiation. hAFSC combined with tissue engineering could be used to provide a new therapeutic approach for dental aloveolar deformity and defects. Currently, the basic and applied research on hAFSC are still in its infancy.In our previous study, it was demonstrated that hAFSC showed stronger osteogenic capability than human bone marrow stromal cell (hBMSC) did. Both BMP-2 and BMP-7 could effectively promote osteogenic differentiation of hAFSC. In order to further compare the osteogenic potential of hAFSC and hBMSC, promote osteogenic differentiation of hAFSC and evaluate the effects of hAFSC in reconstruction of dental alveolar bone defects, we intend to further study the biological characteristics, key osteogenic genes and miRNA expression differences of hAFSC and hBMSC in osteogenic differentiation. We also plan to utilize multi-level analysis to study the effects and mechanism of human BMP-2/BMP-7 gene co-transfection on osteogenic differentiation of hAFSC. Finally we study the performance of hAFSC in nude mice ectopic bone formation and reconstruction of dental alveolar bone defects in SD rat model. In summary, this project is of feasable, advanced and promising nature in exploring new theories and approaches for alveolar bone defects reconstruction.