Cellular basis of accelerated whole-tooth regeneration.

Cichlid fishes exhibit over a threefold acceleration in tooth replacement after plucking, revealing dynamic cellular and molecular changes during regeneration.

• Why it matters: Understanding the cellular basis of tooth regeneration can inform regenerative medicine and address the limited lifelong dental replacement in mammals, including humans.
• What they did: Using single-nucleus RNA sequencing across four time points, the study mapped cellular trajectories and gene expression profiles in dental epithelium, mesenchyme, and immune cells during accelerated tooth replacement.
• The result: Findings highlight distinct signaling pathways and cellular interactions that orchestrate tooth regeneration, providing a comparative framework for vertebrate dental regenerative mechanisms.