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Project information
Understanding of tooth developmental trajectories as a novel approach for dental regeneration

Project Identification
MUNI/H/1615/2018
Project Period
1/2019 - 12/2021
Investor / Pogramme / Project type
Masaryk University
  • Grant Agency of Masaryk University
  • Individual High risk/high gain projects
MU Faculty or unit
Faculty of Medicine

Teeth are the first organs in everyday contact with outer environment and in majority of organisms dentition health status is tightly connected with their life or death. Different vertebrates developed distinct ways how to maintain teeth vitality throughout their lives. Unlike them, human teeth have only limited regenerative and reparative capacity and since the average age of human survival is increasing, dentition is more susceptible to variety of diseases which can ultimately lead to teeth loss. Although modern human dental medicine is able to deal with multiple of dental diseases, the treatment is usually limited to application of inorganic artificial compounds beginning with tooth fillings and in the end leading to application of tooth implants or dentures. Currently there is no clinically routinely used method based on utilization of natural biological processes in regenerative dentistry. In this proposal we suggest completely novel approach how to look at the regenerative medicine in general context by performing experiments on the tooth model system via adopting natural developmental mechanisms for controlling highly specific cell differentiation. Our main practical aim is to produce odontoblasts – a dentin-forming cells, which would be naturally able to repair major hard matrix of the tooth. Recently we gathered important data from our single cell RNA-seq datasets (Dental Cell Type Atlas) from the developing teeth which gave us unique information about transcription factor (TF) code activated during odontoblasts differentiation. Adopting this knowledge we propose new approach to prove the role of TF code in odontoblasts differentiation and validate this hypothesis under both in vitro and in vivo conditions during cells-into-tooth transplantations. This approach may open completely new field of dentistry and in long-term scale can significantly prolong human dental fitness keeping our own teeth healthier and more resistant to dental caries.

Publications

Total number of publications: 4

2023

2022

2021

2020

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