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Tooth engineering: searching for dental mesenchymal cells sources
Laetitia Keller1, Sabine Kuchler-Bopp, Soledad Acuña Mendoza
1UMR 977, Faculté de Médecine, INSERM Strasbourg, France.
Frontiers in Physiology
|April 13, 2011
Summary
Researchers explored using cultured dental mesenchymal cells for tooth development. They found that early embryonic cells are crucial and lose their tooth-forming potential when cultured or as development progresses, highlighting the need for specific culture conditions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Stem Cell Research
- Dental Tissue Engineering
Background:
- Tooth formation is a complex process involving the interaction of dental epithelial and mesenchymal cells.
- Embryonic dental mesenchymal cells are essential for initiating tooth development in vitro.
- Availability of embryonic cells for research and therapeutic applications is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential of cell lines and cultured embryonic dental mesenchymal cells to mediate tooth development.
- To determine the developmental window and culture conditions required for maintaining mesenchymal cell competency.
- To understand the factors influencing the loss of tooth-forming potential in dental mesenchymal cells.
Main Methods:
- Re-association of dental mesenchymal cells (cell lines and cultured embryonic cells) with competent dental epithelium from mouse molars.
- Histological analysis, immunostaining, and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to assess tooth formation and gene expression.
- In vitro culture of embryonic dental mesenchymal cells with and without FGF2 supplementation.
Main Results:
- Immortalized dental mesenchymal cell lines derived from embryonic day 18 (ED18) failed to induce tooth formation.
- The tooth-inducing potential of embryonic dental mesenchymal cells decreased from ED14 to ED18 and was lost upon in vitro cultivation.
- Loss of competency correlated with down-regulation of Fgf3 transcription; FGF2 supplementation restored Fgf3 expression but not tooth formation ability.
Conclusions:
- A specific, competent cell population for initiating whole tooth formation exists in the dental mesenchyme at ED14.
- This competency diminishes progressively during development and is not maintained by standard in vitro culture methods.
- Specific culture conditions are required to preserve the inductive capacity of dental mesenchymal cells for in vitro tooth regeneration.
