Isolation And Odontogenetic Differentiation Of Human Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells

Tooth regeneration technology has become one of the most popular fields in Tissue Engineering area. The concept of tooth regeneration is about replacing the damaged tooth by regenerating tooth with normal morphology and physiological function from the patient's own tissue and cells. In this thesis, we concentrate to inspect the odontogenic behavior of human adipose-derived stromal cells (hADSC) in recombinant tooth germs so as to find out appropriate cells or regenerative models for the tissue engineering of tooth regeneration. In this study, hADSC were isolated and differentiated in vitro into adipogenic and osteogenic cells in the presence of lineage-specific induction factors, we integrated hADSC into mouse tooth germs at Embryonic day 13.5(E13.5) as recombinated chimeric graft, then transplant the graft to immuno-compromised mice for 1 to 2 weeks' sub-renal culture to find out if hADSC can acquire the odontogenic competence and participate in the tooth development. Result of the recombinated chimeric graft culture shows that the recombinated tooth is similar in morphology when it compared to the natural tooth. Dental pulp-dentin complex structures were able to be found in most of the chimeric grafts after 1 to 2 weeks sub-renal culture. Both DNA and RNA in situ hybridization were carried out with the chimeric graft. The results indicated that hADSC can participate in the formation of dense connective tissue and fat-like loose connective tissue, but it cannot be induced to get into the odontogenic differentiation.