Abstract

Background: Tooth loss occurs with age and significantly impacts the quality of elderly's life both physically and psychologically. It has been well known that odontogenesis is a complicated process with sequential and reciprocal interactions between epithelial and mesenchymal tissues and different types of dental tissue-derived stem cells involve in it. However, only a small portion of the intricate mechanisms has been defined nowadays. Among them, epigenetics has become an increasingly important mechanism for tooth development and regeneration.

Objective: This review aims at illustrating the function of epigenetic regulation in odontogenesis, which plays an important role in dental tissue-derived stem cell self-renewal and differentiation nowadays and would be a new strategy for tooth regeneration.

Results: In this review, we introduced the natural process of tooth development and the functions of stem cells involved in. Furthermore, we summarized the current knowledge on epigenetic regulation including DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs during odontogenesis, providing the theoretical basis for tooth regeneration.

Conclusion: Along with a deeper understanding of odontogenesis, the epigenetic mechanism involved in has become increasingly important. Therefore, it’s necessary to further study the functions of epigenetic regulation in tooth development and regeneration, which may make tooth regeneration a reality in the future.

Keywords: Epigenetics, odontogenesis, tooth development, tooth-derived stem cells, tooth regeneration, non-coding RNAs.