Establishment of inclusive single-cell transcriptome atlases from mouse and human tooth as powerful resource for dental research

Abstract

Single-cell (sc) omics has become a powerful tool to unravel a tissue’s cell landscape across health and disease. In recent years, sc transcriptomic interrogation has been applied to a variety of tooth tissues of both human and mouse, which has considerably advanced our fundamental understanding of tooth biology. Now, an overarching and integrated bird’s-view of the human and mouse tooth sc transcriptomic landscape would be a powerful multi-faceted tool for dental research, enabling further decipherment of tooth biology and development through constantly progressing state-of-the-art bioinformatic methods as well as the exploration of novel hypothesis-driven research. To this aim, we re-assessed and integrated recently published scRNA-sequencing datasets of different dental tissue types (healthy and diseased) from human and mouse to establish inclusive tooth sc atlases, and applied the consolidated data map to explore its power. For mouse tooth, we identified novel candidate transcriptional regulators of the ameloblast lineage. Regarding human tooth, we provide support for a developmental connection, not advanced before, between specific epithelial compartments. Taken together, we established inclusive mouse and human tooth sc atlases as powerful tools to potentiate innovative research into tooth biology, development and disease. The maps are provided online in an accessible format for interactive exploration.

Spatiotemporal cell landscape of human embryonic tooth development

“…We also depicted the developmental trajectory, biological insights, essential transcription factors and signaling pathways of dental epithelium and mesenchyme development. In complement with the existing dental cell atlas of prenatal and postnatal mouse tooth 6,7 , postnatal human tooth 7,8 and tooth germ 11 , our result brought one more step closer to the intact single-cell picture of dental development 12 .…”

“…Other studies using dental tissues from healthy volunteers also constructed dell landscape of postnatal human dental pulp 8,9 , apical papilla 7 , periodontal tissues 8,10 and immature tooth germ 11 . Based on these and other existing data, Hermans et al 12 built a comprehensive dental cell landscape that basically covered all developmental stages of mouse incisor and molar tissue as well as human postnatal dental tissues, which has been proved valuable for clinical and bioengineering studies. However, some challenges remain unsolved by these existing efforts.…”

Transcriptomic profiling of the adult reptilian dentition sheds light on the genes regulating indefinite tooth replacement

“…Cluster 3 does not express SEMA3A . In mammals the tissue that surrounds developing teeth is a sac-like structure called dental follicle that expresses IGFBP5 and ACTA2 (Hermans et al 2022). Here we found IGFBP5 expressed in cluster 3 (Fig.…”

“…Upon comparing the mouse data dental follicle transcriptome data (Jing et al 2022; Takahashi et al 2019) to the gecko we were interested to find cell types that express genes characteristic of the dental follicle. The dental mesenchyme (cluster 3) expressed SFRP2, IGFBP5, FOS and SGK1 , all of which are restricted to the mouse dental follicle (Hermans et al 2022). It is possible that these SFRP2 + cells are dental follicle progenitors.…”

“…The dental mesenchyme (cluster 3) expressed SFRP2, IGFBP5, FOS and SGK1, all of which are restricted to the mouse dental follicle (Hermans et al 2022). It is possible that these SFRP2+ cells are dental follicle progenitors.…”