Autophagy and Oral Tissue Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review

The oral cavity is a unique environment that requires continuous remodeling and regeneration, making autophagy a crucial process for oral tissue regeneration. Moreover, the oral cavity is usually colonized by a large number of bacteria, and many oral diseases are caused by bacterial infections and subsequent immune reactions. Autophagy plays a vital role in controlling infectious agents, limiting inflammatory pathologies, regulating cell differentiation, and coordinating multicellular immunity. Therefore, autophagy has a close association with oral tissue regeneration and is a promising target for therapeutic interventions.

Although many studies have explored the role of autophagy in oral diseases and regeneration, there is no systematic review available on the topic. In this review, we focus on how autophagy contributes to stem cell regulation and oral tissue regeneration. We discuss the role of autophagy in alleviating the survival stress of oral stem cells and provide an overview of autophagy machinery. 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. Additionally, we discuss the potential of regulating autophagy using small molecule drugs, biomaterials, exosomes/RNAs, or other specific treatments.

However, the exact mechanisms by which autophagy contributes to oral tissue regeneration remain unclear, and mechanistic studies are necessary to address many questions for therapeutic purposes. Our review provides new insights into the role of autophagy in oral tissue regeneration and can guide further studies on autophagy and other tissue regeneration.