ABSTRACT
Tooth loss can occur for a number of reasons and a variety of prosthetic tooth replacement solutions are available to the dental practitioner. This article discusses current approaches in the use of tissue engineering to replace teeth or repair dental tissues. These strategies will depend upon the manipulation of stem cells in the laboratory and, whilst much progress has recently been made, it is likely that successful human tooth regeneration is still some years ahead.
Subject(s)
Odontogenesis/physiology , Tissue Engineering/methods , Adult Stem Cells/physiology , Animals , Cell Differentiation/physiology , Dental Pulp/cytology , Dentin, Secondary/physiology , Embryonic Stem Cells/physiology , Humans , Mesoderm/cytology , Odontoblasts/cytology , Odontoblasts/physiology , Pluripotent Stem Cells/physiology , Regeneration/physiologyABSTRACT
Teeth are organs that develop in the embryo via a series of interactions between oral epithelium and neural crest-derived ectomesenchyme of the early jaws. These interactions are initiated by the regional production of signalling molecules in the oral epithelium and the transfer of information to the underlying mesenchyme via homeobox gene transcription. This article describes how these interactions are co-ordinated in the embryo during development of the dentition and provides a theoretical basis for the second article in this series; understanding how biologists are attempting to generate teeth artificially in the laboratory.
