- Title
- Self-renewal and multilineage differentiation of mouse dental epithelial stem cells
- Authors
- Julia Yu Fong Chang, Cong Wang, Chengliu Jin, Chaofeng Yang, Yanqing Huang, Junchen Liu, Wallace L. McKeehan, Rena N. D'Souza, Fen Wang
- Institution
- Texas A&M
- Country
- United States
- Year
- 2013
- Journal
- Stem Cell Research
- Abstract
- Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the self-renewal and differentiation of dental
epithelial stem cells (DESCs) that support the unlimited growth potential of mouse incisors is critical for developing novel tooth
regenerative therapies and unraveling the pathogenesis of odontogenic tumors. However, analysis of DESC properties and
regulation has been limited by the lack of an in vitro assay system and well-documented DESC markers. Here, we describe an
in vitro sphere culture system to isolate the DESCs from postnatal mouse incisor cervical loops (CLs) where the DESCs are
thought to reside. The dissociated cells from CLs were able to expand and form spheres for multiple generations in the culture
system. Lineage tracing indicated that DESC within the spheres were epithelial in origin as evident by lineage tracing. Upon
stimulation, the sphere cells differentiated into cytokeratin 14- and amelogenin-expressing and mineral material-producing
cells. Compared to the CL tissue, sphere cells expressed high levels of expression of Sca-1, CD49f (also designated as integrin
α6), and CD44. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses of mouse incisor CL cells further showed that the CD49fBright
population was enriched in sphere-forming cells. In addition, the CD49fBright population includes both slow-cycling and Lgr5+
DESCs. The in vitro sphere culture system and identification of CD49fBright as a DESC marker provide a novel platform for
enriching DESCs, interrogating how maintenance, cell fate determination, and differentiation of DESCs are regulated, and
developing tooth regenerative therapies.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
- Tissue type
- Dental
- Species
- Mouse
- CELLnTEC Previous products
- CnT-24
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