Dental Organoids – a New Approach Towards Human Tooth Regeneration?

Objectives: Tooth loss, mostly as a consequence of oral disease, is a major health problem worldwide. Replacing missing teeth with a biological tooth would be an interesting alternative to the current standard implantation of synthetic materials. Organoids, defined as self-forming 3D in vitro reconstructions of a tissue, provide a powerful means to pursue this goal.
Methods: In our lab, we succeeded in developing an organoid model derived from adult human dental tissue acquired following tooth extraction.
Results: These dental organoids express stem cell (e.g. SOX2) as well as tooth-related markers (e.g. amelogenin) and are long-term expandable. Interestingly, they show differentiation potential towards ameloblast-like cells when cultured in specified medium. Concordantly, single-cell RNA-sequencing reveals key features of amelogenesis and convergences with recently identified markers of mouse incisor mature ameloblasts. Finally, the organoids are able to deposit mineralized tissue when transplanted in vivo.
Conclusions: Taken together, we developed a new, unique organoid model which will provide a powerful tool to study human tooth development, pathology and repair, and may pave the way towards tooth regenerative replacement therapy.