Homeobox genes and tooth development: Understanding the biological pathways and applications in regenerative dental science

Objectives: Homeobox genes are a group of conserved class of transcription factors that function as key regulators during the embryonic developmental processes. They act as master regulator for developmental genes, which involves coordinated actions of various auto and cross-regulatory mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the expression pattern of homeobox genes in relation to the tooth development and various signaling pathways or molecules contributing to the specific actions of these genes in the regulation of odontogenesis.

Materials and methods: An electronic search was undertaken using combination of keywords e.g. Homeobox genes, tooth development, dental diseases, stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, gene control region was used as search terms in PubMed and Web of Science and relevant full text articles and abstract were retrieved that were written in English. A manual hand search in text books were also carried out. Articles related to homeobox genes in dentistry and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine of odontogenesis were selected.

Results: The possible perspective of stem cells technology in odontogenesis and subsequent analysis of gene correction pertaining to dental disorders through the possibility of induced pluripotent stem cells technology is also inferred.

Conclusions: We demonstrate the promising role of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine on odontogenesis, which can generate a new ray of hope in the field of dental science.