Abstract
Tooth organs develop through the sequential reciprocal signaling interaction between ectodermalderived epithelial cells and cranial neural crest-derived mesenchymal cells. In recent advances in tissue engineering technology and developmental biology, a partial tooth regeneration has been demonstrated by using embryonic mouse dental epithelial and mesenchyme cells. However, no technology of tooth reconstruction has been identified to regulate tooth morphogenesis possessing positional characters of original tooth shape and size for its function. In this study, we focus on the roles of ameloblastin, one of the enamel matrix proteins, in dental epithelial cell differentiation into ameloblast and enamel formation. Ameloblastin regulates not only ameloblast proliferation and differentiation,but also enamel formation. In addition, ameloblastin controls the cell polarity of ameloblast, which go through multiple stages of differentiation to orchestrate enamel formation. The enamel epithelium does not exist in adult teeth, and currently there are not readily available sources of dental epithelial cells. This limitation, along with a lack of knowledge on mechanisms guiding the formation of enamel, impacts our capacity to develop strategies for the repair and regeneration of enamel.
