Bone marrow cells can give rise to ameloblast-like cells

Post-eruptive loss of ameloblasts requires identification of alternative sources for these cells to realize tooth-tissue-engineering strategies. Recent reports showed that bone-marrow-derived cells can give rise to different types of epithelial cells, suggesting their potential to serve as a source for ameloblasts. To investigate this potential, we mixed c-Kit(+)-enriched bone marrow cells with embryonic dental epithelial cells and cultured them in re-association with dental mesenchyme. Non-dividing, polarized, and secretory ameloblast-like cells were achieved without cell fusion. Before basement membrane reconstitution, some bone marrow cells migrated to the mesenchyme, where they exhibited morphological, molecular, and functional characteristics of odontoblasts. These results show, for the first time, that bone-marrow-derived cells can be reprogrammed to give rise to ameloblast-like cells, offering novel possibilities for tooth-tissue engineering and the study of the simultaneous differentiation of one bone marrow cell subpopulation into cells of two different embryonic lineages.