New insight into dental epithelial stem cells: Identification, regulation, and function in tooth homeostasis and repair.

ABSTRACT: Tooth enamel, a highly mineralized tissue covering the outermost area of teeth, is always damaged by dental caries or trauma. Tooth enamel rarely repairs or renews itself, due to the loss of ameloblasts and dental epithelial stem cells (DESCs) once the tooth erupts. Unlike human teeth, mouse incisors grow continuously due to the presence of DESCs that generate enamel-producing ameloblasts and other supporting dental epithelial lineages. The ready accessibility of mouse DESCs and wide availability of related transgenic mouse lines make mouse incisors an excellent model to examine the identity and heterogeneity of dental epithelial stem/progenitor cells; explore the regulatory mechanisms underlying enamel formation; and help answer the open question regarding the therapeutic development of e

SUBMITTER: Gan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7705464 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature