Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Feb 17.
Published in final edited form as: J Vis Exp. 2023 Oct 27;(200):10.3791/66020. doi: 10.3791/66020

Figure 1: Schematics of the mouse jaw and incisor cervical loop.

Figure 1:

(A) A significant portion of the incisor is embedded in the jawbone. The growth region is located at the apical end of the tooth and supports its continuous growth (dark green arrow). (B) An enlargement of the apical incisor, which is surrounded by periodontal tissues. The tooth is composed of enamel and dentin, which are highly mineralized structures formed by ameloblasts and odontoblasts, respectively. (C) A sagittal section of the apical incisor, showing that dental epithelial progenitor cells and transit-amplifying cells reside in the labial cervical loop and give rise to ameloblasts in the more distal epithelium (dark green dashed arrow). Compared to the labial cervical loop, the lingual cervical loop is smaller in size and does not normally form ameloblasts. Dental mesenchymal stem cells are present in the dental pulp (purple region) and give rise to odontoblasts. Abbreviations: En = enamel; De = dentin; Am = ameloblast; Od = odontoblast; TACs = transit-amplifying cells; laCL = labial cervical loop; liCL = lingual cervical loop.