|
|
 |
An important challenge facing medicine today is the development of
strategies for organ regeneration and repair. However, because organ
engineering is a complex process, proof of principle using a simple and tractable
system will help to lay the foundation for the field by allowing for a focus on
regenerative mechanisms rather than on ensuring proper organ physiology. Teeth provide
a feasible prototype for stem cell (SC) based organ regeneration because their
physiology is relatively uncomplicated compared with other organs. We have turned
to the mouse incisor as a model to understand the mechanisms that underlie the
ability of SCs to contribute to renewal of dental tissues. The rodent incisor is
an unusual tooth that grows continuously throughout the animal's life and generates
all the necessary cell types from adult SCs. Thus, this tooth provides an ideal
system to study the processes involved in maintenance and progeny generation from
SCs. We will focus on understanding self-renewal and differentiation in this
system and hope to use this data to lay the foundation for building new teeth from SCs.
Selected Publications
Klein OD, Minowada G, Peterkova R, Kangas A, Yu BD, Lesot H, Peterka M, Jernvall J, Martin GR. Sprouty genes control tooth number via bidirectional antagonism of epithelial-mesenchymal FGF signaling. Dev Cell 2006; 11:181-190.
D'Souza RD and Klein OD. Unraveling the molecular mechanisms that lead to supernumerary teeth in mice and men: current concepts and novel approaches. Cells, Tissues, Organs 2007; 186:60 69.
Klein OD, Lyons DB, Balooch G, Marshall GW, Basson MA, Peterka M, Boran T, Peterkova R, Martin GR. An FGF signaling loop sustains the generation of differentiated progeny from incisor epithelial stem cells. Development in press.
|
|
|
