Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Nov 26, 2020; 12(11): 1327-1340
Published online Nov 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i11.1327
New insight into dental epithelial stem cells: Identification, regulation, and function in tooth homeostasis and repair
Lu Gan, Ying Liu, Di-Xin Cui, Yue Pan, Mian Wan
Lu Gan, Ying Liu, Di-Xin Cui, Yue Pan, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Department of Pediatric Dentistry, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Mian Wan, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Department of Cariology and Endodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Gan L and Liu Y contributed equally to this work; Gan L, Liu Y, and Wan M conceived the idea and designed the work; Gan L, Liu Y, Cui DX, and Pan Y integrated the materials; Gan L and Liu Y wrote the paper; Wan M revised the manuscript critically; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81800929; and Sichuan Science and Technology Program, No. 2019JDRC0096.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mian Wan, DDS, PhD, Academic Fellow, Academic Research, Attending Doctor, Lecturer, Postdoctoral Fellow, State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases & National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Department of Cariology and Endodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, No. 14 3rd Section of Renmin South Road, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. mianwan@scu.edu.cn
Received: July 10, 2020
Peer-review started: July 10, 2020
First decision: August 9, 2020
Revised: August 21, 2020
Accepted: September 15, 2020
Article in press: September 15, 2020
Published online: November 26, 2020
Processing time: 138 Days and 16.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: In the present review, we update the current understanding about the identification of dental epithelial stem cells (DESCs) in mouse incisors and summarize the regulatory mechanisms of enamel formation driven by DESCs. The roles of DESCs during homeostasis and repair are also discussed, which should improve our knowledge regarding enamel tissue engineering.