Insight into the maintenance of odontogenic potential in mouse dental mesenchymal cells based on transcriptomic analysis

Background. Mouse dental mesenchymal cells (mDMCs) from tooth germs of cap or later stages are frequently used in the context of developmental biology or whole-tooth regeneration due to their odontogenic potential. In vitro-expanded mDMCs serve as an alternative cell source considering the difficulty in obtaining primary mDMCs; however, cultured mDMCs fail to support tooth development as a result of functional failures of specific genes or pathways. The goal of this study was to identify the genes that maintain the odontogenic potential of mDMCs in culture