The secretome of the inductive tooth germ exhibits signals required for tooth development

Our lab previously provided a basis for bioengineering new teeth by separating tooth epithelial and mesenchyme cells into a single cell populations and then recombining. However, the inductive signals that are needed for tooth development have not yet been fully identified. Furthermore, this approach is not clinically applicable as the cells lose their inductive ability when expanded in vitro. In this study we investigate if the secretome and small extracellular vehicles (sEV) derived from inductive tooth mesenchyme can contribute to inductive signals required for tooth development. Extracellular vesicles and secretome were therefore purified from inductive tooth mesenchyme and characterized. We investigate the effect of treatment of tooth germ epithelium with secretome, and sEV purified from inductive and non-inductive mesenchyme and the impact of culture condition on them.