Single-Cell Virtual Perturbation Screening Identifies STAT3 as a Key Regulator of Dentinogenesis - PubMed
6 hours ago
- #dentinogenesis
- #single-cell
- #STAT3
- The study used single-cell virtual perturbation screening to identify STAT3 as a key regulator of dentinogenesis, or dentine formation.
- EFNB2+ mesenchymal cells were identified as primary progenitors in the odontogenic lineage through single-cell transcriptional analysis.
- In silico perturbations predicted that STAT3 ablation disrupts the developmental vector field, redirecting mesenchymal precursor fate away from the odontoblast lineage.
- Functional validation with shRNA silencing, pharmacological modulation, and conditional knockout mice confirmed STAT3's essential role in dental mesenchymal cell proliferation, differentiation, and dentine formation.
- Mechanistically, STAT3 directly binds to the WNT2B promoter to activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and WNT2B overexpression partially rescues defects from STAT3 inactivation.