Abstract: Objective: To investigate the ability of heterogeneous tooth tissue engineering (HTTE) which was established by germ cells co-cultured with bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) co-transfected with fibroblast growth factor bFGF/BMP-2 to differentiate into teeth through integrally implanted in rats. Methods: 128 healthy SD rats were randomly divided into four groups: the cell pellet group, gelatin sponge group, cell clumps + gelatin sponge group, and control group. The HTTE was implanted in the renal subcapsular of rats under general anesthesia. Samples were collected after 5, 10, 14, and 28 days and each group included 8 samples. Gross tissue observation, Masson staining, and immunohistochemical staining were performed. Results: Histological gross observation and Masson staining indicated that there was dental tissue formed in the cell clumps + gelatin sponge group. Factorial analysis showed that, at each time point, the expression of cell clumps + gelatin sponge group reached the peak and was significantly higher than those of other groups. Then, the expression level declined. The difference was statistical significance (P<0.05). Conclusion: Mixing culture of germ cells and gene co-transfected BMSCs seeded on the gelatin sponge could form tooth-like organization, which might lay a certain foundation to construct the tissue engineering teeth.

Key words: Tooth germ cell , Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells , Dentin matrix protein-1 , Bone morphogenetic protein 4, Dentin sialoprotein