象牙芽細胞の分化と細胞外基質

Tooth development is a complex process that includes interactions between oral epithelium-derived dental epithelial cells and neural crest-derived dental mesenchymal cells. In this process, the basement membrane at the epithelial-mesenchymal interface plays important roles in matrix-mediated cell interactions and for trapping growth factors, then dental epithelial and mesenchymal cells differentiate into enamel-forming ameloblasts and dentin-forming odontoblasts, respectively. For enamel and dentin formation, these cells produce large amounts of extracellular matrixes, thus cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions are crucial for both ameloblast and odontoblast differentiation. In this review, we focus on the role of the extracellular matrix in odontoblast differentiation. Dentin and bone are similar in several aspects, such as extracellular matrix composition and genetic diseases, which affect both bone and dentin mineralization, common between them. However, the process of odontoblast differentiation is completely different from that of osteoblast differentiation. For better understanding of tooth development, it is important to elucidate the differences between these cell types.