2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Reconstructing tooth early stage using human cells and screening the potential Chinese herbs for tissue-regeneration

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21890267
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Dental engineering/Regenerative dentistry
Research Institution	The Nippon Dental University
Principal Investigator	XIAO Li 日本歯科大学, 生命歯学部, 講師 (80548256)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	再生歯モデル / 上皮陥入 / 上皮間葉相互作用
Research Abstract	Epithelium invagination is the key feature of early tooth development. In this study, we first built a three dimensional model to represent epithelium invagination-like structure by tissue engineering using human normal oral epithelial cells(OECs) and dental pulp stem cells(DPSCs). OEC-DPSC co-cultures on matrigel showed typical invagination of epithelial cells and condensation of the underlying mesenchymal cells in a three-dimensional manner. Epithelial invagination related molecules, CD44 and E-cadherin, and mesenchymal condensation involved molecules, N-cadherin and Msx1 expressed at a high level in the tissue model, suggesting the epithelial invagination is functional. Our results suggest that co-cultivated OECs and DPSCs on matrigel under certain conditions can build an epithelium invagination-like model. This model might be explored as a potential research tool for epithelial-mesenchymal interaction and tooth regeneration.

(4 results)