Autophagy's Role in Oral Tissue Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review

The oral cavity is a distinct environment that requires constant regeneration and remodeling, and autophagy plays a crucial role in this process. Moreover, the oral cavity is home to a multitude of bacterial colonizers, and many oral diseases are caused by bacterial infections and subsequent immune reactions. Numerous studies have demonstrated that autophagy is involved in controlling the burden of infectious agents, limiting inflammatory pathologies, regulating myeloid/lymphoid cell differentiation, and coordinating multicellular immunity. Given the role of autophagy in repairing damaged tissue, it is apparent that autophagy is closely linked to oral tissue regeneration. Despite numerous studies exploring the role of autophagy in oral diseases and tissue regeneration, no systematic reviews on the subject have been conducted.

In this review, we focus on how autophagy contributes to stem cell regulation and oral tissue regeneration. We explore the role of autophagy in alleviating the survival stress experienced by oral stem cells and provide an overview of the autophagy machinery in eukaryotes. We also review how autophagy contributes to different components of oral tissue regeneration and introduce the molecular mechanisms involved in autophagy-regulated oral tissue regeneration. We discuss how to regulate autophagy using small molecule drugs, biomaterials, exosomes/RNAs, or other specific treatments. Finally, we explore new perspectives on autophagy manipulation and oral tissue regeneration. Nonetheless, the exact mechanism by which autophagy contributes to oral tissue regeneration remains unclear. Mechanistic studies are required to address many questions for therapeutic purposes. Our review may help further studies on autophagy in oral and other tissue regeneration, and we hope to provide new insights into human tissue regeneration.