Aj. Sloan et al., AN IN-VITRO APPROACH FOR THE STUDY OF DENTINOGENESIS BY ORGAN-CULTUREOF THE DENTIN-PULP COMPLEX FROM RAT INCISOR TEETH, Archives of oral biology, 43(6), 1998, pp. 421-430
Culture of the developing dental tissues has contributed to understand
ing of developmental processes during early odontogenesis. However, to
understand fully the mechanisms involved during dentinogenesis and ti
ssue repair there is a need to develop culture models for the dentine-
pulp complex from more mature dental tissues. This study describes the
development of a system for the organ culture of mature rodent teeth.
Slices of incisors from 28-day-old rats were embedded in a semisolid,
agar-based medium and cultured on floating Millipore filters at the l
iquid-gas interface for up to 14 days. Preservation of cell and tissue
morphology was observed throughout the entire dentine-pulp complex af
ter each culture period and autoradiographic studies showed that the o
dontoblasts were actively synthesizing and secreting extracellular mat
rix during culture. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed that th
e phenotypic morphology of the odontoblasts had been maintained during
culture. These results demonstrate that the dentine-pulp complex from
mature rodent tissues can be cultured successfully for substantial pe
riods of time and will provide a useful model for the study of dentino
genesis and tissue repair. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r
eserved.