Fig. 1

Proximal mandibular denervation impairs the healing of bone injury. a Representative images of Plp1, CD31, CGRP Sox10, and Gli1 immunostaining and tdTomato⁺ cells to evaluate the efficiency and specificity of recombination of the Plp1-creER^T2 alleles. Scale bar: 100 μm. Ab alveolar bone, PDL periodontal ligament. b Representative images of Plp1 and CGRP immunostaining and tdTomato⁺ cells in IAN. Scale bar: 100 μm. IAN inferior alveolar nerve. c Schematic illustration of the lineage tracing approach and proximal mandibular denervation in the jaw bone healing model. d Representative images of CGRP immunostaining and tdTomato⁺ cells in healing sockets of Sham and Denervation mice at day 7 post tooth extraction and quantification of tdTomato⁺ cells in TES (n = 6). Dotted lines indicate the tooth sockets. TES: tooth extraction socket. Scale bar: 100 μm. e H&E staining of tooth sockets from Sham and Denervation mice at day 7 and day 14 post tooth extraction (n = 6). Dotted lines indicate the tooth sockets. Scale bar: 100 μm. f Dynamic histomorphometry of trabecular bone (Tb) with quantification of mineralization apposition rate (MAR) in tooth extracted sockets (n = 6). Sham and Denervation mice were injected with calcein 7 and 2 days before sacrifice, respectively. Scale bar: 5 μm. g Representative images of μCT reconstruction of the alveolar bone regeneration at day 7 post tooth extraction and quantitative analyses on bone volume/total volume (BV/TV) and bone mineral density (BMD) (n = 6). h Representative images of COL1 immunostaining and tdTomato⁺ cells and quantification of COL1⁺ areas per socket (n = 6). Scale bar: 100 μm. i Representative images of CD31 and EMCN immunostaining and quantification of CD31⁺EMCN⁺ type H vessels in TES (n = 6). Scale bar: 100 μm. Data were presented as mean ± SD; **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001