A Spatiotemporal Cell Atlas of the Developing Rat Tooth Germ Reveals Iron-Deficiency Induced Ameloblast Dysregulation

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during pregnancy is a crucial risk factor for dental caries in offspring, yet the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying its impact on tooth development remain unclear. To elucidate the pathogenic mechanism in situ spatially, this study established a pregnant rat model of IDA and analyzed the molar tooth germs of 7-day-old offspring using high-resolution spatial transcriptomics (Stereo-seq). Overall design: Confirmed IDA female rats and Control female rats were co-housed with normal male SD rats at a 2:1 ratio, which is two females per male. Pregnant females were then separated and individually housed until parturition. We randomly selected one offspring from each of the IDA and Control groups at 7 days of age for tissue collection.