Autophagy and Oral Tissue Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review

The oral cavity is a unique environment that requires consistent remodeling and regeneration, making autophagy essential in oral tissue regeneration. The presence of a large number of bacterial colonizers in the oral cavity often causes oral diseases due to bacterial infections and subsequent immune reactions. Many studies have reported that autophagy plays a crucial role in controlling infectious agents, limiting inflammatory pathologies, regulating myeloid/lymphoid cell differentiation, and coordinating multicellular immunity. Autophagy also plays a significant role in repairing damaged tissue, indicating a close association with oral tissue regeneration.

Although several studies have explored the role of autophagy in oral diseases and tissue regeneration, there are no systematic reviews on the role of autophagy in oral tissue regeneration. This review focuses on how autophagy contributes to stem cell regulation and oral tissue regeneration. The role of autophagy in alleviating the survival stress of oral stem cells is discussed, providing an overview of autophagy machinery in eucryon. The molecular mechanisms involved in autophagy regulated oral tissue regeneration are introduced, along with how autophagy can be regulated by small molecule drugs, biomaterials, exosomes/RNAs, or other specific treatments. The review also discusses new perspectives on autophagy manipulation and oral tissue regeneration.

However, the exact mechanism by which autophagy contributes to oral tissue regeneration is still not clear, and more mechanistic studies are necessary for therapeutic purposes. This review provides valuable insights into further autophagy studies on oral tissue and other tissue regeneration, hoping to provide new insights into human tissue regeneration.