VIENNA: Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Harvard University in the USA have recently identified and distinguished all the cell populations in mouse and the mature and growing human teeth.
The knowledge on the cellular composition and growth of teeth can facilitate developments in regenerative dentistry and the treatment of tooth sensitivity.
Scientists have often used the mouse incisors, which grow continuously and renew throughout the animal's life, to explain the complex model of tooth development.
Therefore, Jan Krivanek, the lead author of the research, and colleagues provide an atlas of human and mouse teeth, focusing on growth and differentiation using a single-cell RNA sequencing method and genetic tracing. It explained the differentiation and dynamics of various tooth cells and stem cells that remain to be answered. The study also discovered the new cell types and cell layers in teeth that could affect tooth sensitivity.
Apart from shedding new light on the formation of tooth enamel, the study also explained some complicated aspects of teeth's immune systems.
Kaj Fried, the co-author of the research, said their study could form the basis of new approaches to tomorrow's dentistry and promote the fast-expanding field of regenerative dentistry.
The study, 'Dental cell type atlas reveals stem and differentiated cell types in mouse and human teeth', has been published in Nature Communications.