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Alveolar bone remodeling in orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) is a highly regulated process that coordinates bone resorption by osteoclasts and new bone formation by osteoblasts. Mechanisms involved in OTM include mechano-sensing, sterile inflammation-mediated osteoclastogenesis on the compression side and tensile force-induced osteogenesis on the tension side. Several intracellular signaling pathways and mechanosensors including the cilia and ion channels transduce mechanical force into biochemical signals that stimulate formation of osteoclasts or osteoblasts. To date, many studies were performed in vitro or using human gingival crevicular fluid samples. Thus, the use of transgenic animals is very helpful in examining a cause and effect relationship. Key cell types that participate in mediating the response to OTM include periodontal ligament fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, osteoblasts, osteocytes, and osteoclasts. Intercellular signals that stimulate cellular processes needed for orthodontic tooth movement include receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), dickkopf Wnt signaling pathway inhibitor 1 (DKK1), sclerostin, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). In this review, we critically summarize the current OTM studies using transgenic animal models in order to provide mechanistic insight into the cellular events and the molecular regulation of OTM.
Orthodontic tooth movement is a highly coordinated process in which various cells, cytokines, and complex mechanisms are involved. To date, many OTM studies have been performed, but many are in vitro studies or examined the global deletion of a specific gene or cell type. Transgenic animal studies with careful combination of specific cell types and genes can provide the insight into the key cellular and molecular mechanisms in OTM by establishing the cause and effect relationships. Findings from those studies could be applied for our daily orthodontic practice in the future, accelerating the osteoclastogenesis and reducing the treatment time. Conversely, blocking the osteoclastogenesis can be applied to prevent the orthodontic relapse. In addition, increasing the osteogenesis can be greatly helpful in maxillary expansion procedure, reducing the current 5 to 6 months of retention period. The RANKL gene transfer to expedite the OTM is just one example.
One of the limitations of this entry is that animal studies that specifically examined mechanosensors are generally rare. Many of those studies were conducted in vitro. Mechanosensors play a critical role in the mechanotransduction process and further investigation is warranated. In addition, several OTM studies used slightly different orthodontic force and time points. The use of standardized OTM methods would greatly help in the precise comparison of the effects from multiple animal OTM studies. Lastly, due to their different characteristics, applying the findings from rodent studies to humans does warrant some modification considering their differences, for example when considering the time periods in OTM.