Reviewed by Ray Spotts
Researchers with the University of Plymouth's Peninsula Dental School - along with collaboration worldwide – have discovered a mechanism that may offer a potential solution to tooth repair. With the knowledge that stem cells hold the key to wound healing as they develop into specialized cell types throughout the body - including in teeth, the study - published in Nature Communications - shows that a gene called Dlk1 enhances stem cell activation and tissue regeneration in tooth healing. The researchers discovered a new population of mesenchymal stem cells - the stem cells that make up skeletal tissue such as muscle and bone - in a continuously growing mouse incisor model.
