Harnessing natural stem cell-based strategies for mammalian dental renewal

项目总结/摘要 通过发现动物通常用来更新和再生组织的策略，我们可以为动物的健康奠定基础。 人类再生方法的基础。我实验室的一个主要长期目标是 是通过整合发育和进化来理解哺乳动物的更新和再生 视角为了做到这一点，我们使用牙列作为模型，并利用一个显着的优势， 在不同的哺乳动物物种中发现的特性，这是基于牙齿持续生长的能力。 成体干细胞的存在。尽管取得了初步进展，但我们的知识存在许多差距和挑战， 保持。我们仍处于了解切牙上皮中的牙齿干细胞 我们对间充质干细胞知之甚少。我们也有很多东西要学习 牙齿干细胞是如何进化的，以及它们是如何在胚胎发育过程中出现的。的总体范围 这里提出的研究计划将与这些基本问题作斗争：成年人如何干 细胞使器官得以更新牙齿中的干细胞如何应对环境影响， 冬眠和原力干细胞是如何在哺乳动物牙齿的进化过程中出现的？怎么 胚胎中的祖细胞为牙齿发育提供了起始材料？我们能瞄准牙齿吗 祖细胞来治疗疾病我们工作的影响将是提供坚实的基础科学基础 通过深入了解自然哺乳动物的系统， 牙科更新。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT By discovering the strategies that animals normally use to renew and regenerate their tissues, we can lay a foundation for regenerative approaches in humans. One of the principal long-term goals of my laboratory is to understand mammalian renewal and regeneration by integrating developmental and evolutionary perspectives. To do this, we are using the dentition as a model and are taking advantage of a remarkable property that is found in diverse mammalian species, which is the ability to grow teeth continuously based on the presence of adult stem cells. Despite initial progress, many gaps and challenges in our knowledge remain. We are still in the early stages of understanding how dental stem cells in the incisor epithelium behave, and we know very little about the mesenchymal stem cells. We also have a great deal to learn about how dental stem cells evolved and how they arise in the embryo during development. The overall scope of the research program proposed here will be to contend with these fundamental questions: How do adult stem cells enable the organ to renew? How do the stem cells in teeth respond to environmental influences such as hibernation and force? How did stem cells emerge during evolution of the mammalian dentition? How do progenitor cells in the embryo provide the starting materials for tooth development? Can we target tooth progenitors to cure disease? The impact of our work will be to provide a solid basic science foundation for future regenerative approaches by obtaining deep insight into a system of natural mammalian dental renewal.