A single-cell atlas of human teeth
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Updated: Nov 5, 2025
Rapid Isolation of Single Cells from Mouse and Human Teeth
Published on: October 28, 2021
Pierfrancesco Pagella1, Laura de Vargas Roditi2, Bernd Stadlinger3
1Orofacial Development and Regeneration, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Oral Biology, Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 11, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Teeth exert fundamental functions related to mastication and speech. Despite their great biomedical importance, an overall picture of their cellular and molecular composition is still missing. In this study, we have mapped the transcriptional landscape of the various cell populations that compose human teeth at single-cell resolution, and we analyzed in deeper detail their stem cell populations and their microenvironment. Our study identified great cellular heterogeneity in the dental pulp and the periodontium. Unexpectedly, we found that the molecular signatures of the stem cell populations were very similar, while their respective microenvironments strongly diverged. Our findings suggest that the microenvironmental specificity is a potential source for functional differences between highly similar stem cells located in the various tooth compartments and open new perspectives toward cell-based dental therapeutic approaches.
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