Developing an artificial adult stem cell niche would provide a valuable tool for treating various diseases. The dental epithelial stem cell (DESC) population present in the cervical loop of continuously growing rodent incisors provides an informative model system to study adult epithelial stem cells. This has applications not only for enamel regeneration, but also possibly for any epithelial tissue containing adult epithelial stem cells. Despite much progress in understanding the epithelial/mesenchymal crosstalk in this DESC niche in the incisor cervical loop, there is little known about the role of the physical microenvironment and topography on the maintenance of these stem cells. To better understand the contribution of topography to DESC maintenance and differentiation, DESCs were isolated and characterized from the labial cervical loop of the mouse mandibular incisor. Our results revealed E-cadherin and Integrin alpha-6 as potential markers of dental epithelial stem cells, and we found differential localization of extracellular matrix proteins within the cervical loop microenvironment. To understand the physical topography and architecture the DESC experience, we performed 3D reconstruction analysis of histological sections to determine the size and volume of the mouse cervical loop. To study the effects of microenvironment on the self-renewal and differentiation of murine DESCs, we fabricated a series of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polycaprolactone (PCL), and polystyrene (PS) scaffolds, modeled from the 3D reconstruction, containing varying micro- and nano- topographies using standard photolithographic techniques. Insights into the effects of topography on stem cell maintenance and differentiation could prove beneficial for the successful regeneration of bioengineered teeth from adult stem cell populations and would advance the treatment of both congenital disorders and tissue damage from trauma and disease.

Micro- and nano-topography on polymeric scaffolds for the creation of an artificial epithelial stem cell niche

248th National Meeting (2014)

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