Fol. Biol. 2014, 60, 21-29
Recent Approaches in Tooth Engineering Research
Tooth absence and defects caused by various reasons are frequent events in humans. They are not life threatening but may bring about social consequences. Recent dentistry provides solutions in the form of prosthetics or dental implants; however, seve ral complications and distinct limitations favour bioengineering of dental and periodontal structures. At least two types of cells (epithelial and mesenchymal) have to be recombined to produce a new functional tooth. Moreover, the tooth must be vascularized, innervated and properly anchored in the bone. To study these issues, different approaches have been established in both basic and applied research. In this review, recent strategies and techniques of tooth engineering are comprehensively summarized and discussed, particularly regarding manipulation using stem cells.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project P304/11/1418. Clinical aspects are studied under the project of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (NT 11420-6/2010). The laboratories at the FS MU are supported by the Centre of Experimental Biomedicine (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/ 20.0183) and the IAPG of the AS CR, v. v. i. is supported by RVO: 67985904.
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Copyright
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.