Gan Lu, Liu Ying, Cui Di-Xin, Pan Yue, Wan Mian
State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Department of Pediatric Dentistry, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Department of Cariology and Endodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
World J Stem Cells. 2020 Nov 26;12(11):1327-1340. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i11.1327.
Tooth enamel, a highly mineralized tissue covering the outermost area of teeth, is always damaged by dental caries or trauma. Tooth enamel rarely repairs or renews itself, due to the loss of ameloblasts and dental epithelial stem cells (DESCs) once the tooth erupts. Unlike human teeth, mouse incisors grow continuously due to the presence of DESCs that generate enamel-producing ameloblasts and other supporting dental epithelial lineages. The ready accessibility of mouse DESCs and wide availability of related transgenic mouse lines make mouse incisors an excellent model to examine the identity and heterogeneity of dental epithelial stem/progenitor cells; explore the regulatory mechanisms underlying enamel formation; and help answer the open question regarding the therapeutic development of enamel engineering. In the present review, we update the current understanding about the identification of DESCs in mouse incisors and summarize the regulatory mechanisms of enamel formation driven by DESCs. The roles of DESCs during homeostasis and repair are also discussed, which should improve our knowledge regarding enamel tissue engineering.
牙釉质是覆盖牙齿最外层的高度矿化组织，常因龋齿或外伤而受损。牙齿萌出后，由于成釉细胞和牙上皮干细胞（DESCs）的缺失，牙釉质很少能自我修复或更新。与人类牙齿不同，小鼠的门齿由于存在能产生形成牙釉质的成釉细胞和其他支持性牙上皮谱系的DESCs而持续生长。小鼠DESCs易于获取，且相关转基因小鼠品系广泛可得，这使得小鼠门齿成为研究牙上皮干/祖细胞的特性和异质性、探索牙釉质形成的调控机制以及帮助解答牙釉质工程治疗发展这一悬而未决问题的理想模型。在本综述中，我们更新了对小鼠门齿中DESCs鉴定的当前认识，并总结了DESCs驱动的牙釉质形成的调控机制。还讨论了DESCs在稳态和修复过程中的作用，这将增进我们对牙釉质组织工程的了解。
