title: Tissue engineering of complex tooth structures on biodegradable polymer scaffolds.
abstract: Tooth loss due to periodontal disease, dental caries, trauma, or a variety of genetic disorders continues to affect most adults adversely at some time in their lives. A biological tooth substitute that could replace lost teeth would provide a vital alternative to currently available clinical treatments. To pursue this goal, we dissociated porcine third molar tooth buds into single-cell suspensions and seeded them onto biodegradable polymers. After growing in rat hosts for 20 to 30 weeks, recognizable tooth structures formed that contained dentin, odontoblasts, a well-defined pulp chamber, putative Hertwig's root sheath epithelia, putative cementoblasts, and a morphologically correct enamel organ containing fully formed enamel. Our results demonstrate the first successful generation of tooth crowns from dissociated tooth tissues that contain both dentin and enamel, and suggest the presence of epithelial and mesenchymal dental stem cells in porcine third molar tissues.
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D000565:Ameloblasts / Q000166:cytology; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D003739:Dental Cementum / Q000166:cytology; D003743:Dental Enamel / Q000166:cytology; D003786:Dental Pulp Cavity / Q000166:cytology; D003804:Dentin / Q000166:cytology; D004658:Enamel Organ / Q000166:cytology; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009804:Odontoblasts / Q000166:cytology; D011091:Polyesters; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D011923:Rats, Nude; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D013552:Swine; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014070:Tooth / Q000166:cytology*; D019228:Tooth Crown / Q000166:cytology; D014083:Tooth Germ / Q000166:cytology; D014092:Tooth Root / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011091:Polyesters; D011108:Polymers; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid; D019344:Lactic Acid; C033616:poly(lactide)