The dental pulp as a high-resolution model for neurovascular niche biology

Building functional tissue in vitro shares a common ceiling. Current models span vascular co-development, trophic interaction, vascular-to-neural sensitization, barrier function, and even functional neuromuscular coupling, yet none has reconstituted functional neurovascular (NV) coupling. We argue that, on one specific axis, the dental pulp is the most direct single-source substrate for dissecting this coupling. A single, clinically accessible neural-crest tissue supplies the perivascular compartment together with glial and neurotrophic support for the neural compartment, in a volume amenable to single-cell methods and one in which an activity-dependent NV interaction is already measurable in vivo. This is a competence claim, not a demonstration; no in-vitro pulp model has closed the loop, leaving unresolved the clinical divergence between reversible and irreversible pulpitis. The review identifies the clinical, experimental, and mechanistic questions a pulp model could resolve, yielding a transferable method for other NV-coupled tissues.