Figure 1

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) of dental epithelia, adjacent dental mesenchyme, odontoblasts and cementoblasts from sagittal sections of mouse mandibular incisors and molars. (a) Schematic illustration of a mouse mandible (sagittal plane) during tooth development. Rectangular frame shows the incisor cervical loop and surrounding area used for LCM (b). Dotted vertical line indicates frontal section of the first molar for LCM (c). Solid vertical lines indicate the orientation and size of the embedded tissues used in this study. Note the excess bones out of this border was trimmed off to make the sectioning more efficient and with high quality. (b) Undifferentiated epithelial and mesenchymal cells associated with incisor root formation. Cell nuclei are stained with cresyl violet (purple) on sagittal sections of the 7-day postnatal mouse mandible. The following three cell populations were captured: LCL (epithelia,red dotted line outlined),DP (mesenchyme) and DF (mesenchyme). Left panel: ×40; middle panel: ×200; right panel: ×200. (c) Terminally differentiated cells associated with molar root formation,including: OD (dentin forming cells,not captured yet) and CB (cementum forming cells). Left panel: ×100; right panel: ×200. Alv,alveolar bone; CEJ,cemento-enamel junction; CB,cementoblasts; DF,dental follicle; DP,dental papilla; LCL,lingual cervical loop; OD,odontoblasts.