Morphological features of tooth development and replacement in the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus

Abstract Dental development mechanisms in mammals are highly studied using the mouse as a biological model. However, the mouse has a single, unreplaced, set of teeth. Features of mammalian tooth replacement are thus poorly known. In this paper, we study mammalian tooth development and replacement using the European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, as a new model. Using 3D-reconstructions associated with histological sections, we obtained the complete description of the histo-morphological chronology of dental development and replacement in rabbit. We also describe in the dentin the presence of holes opening the pulp cavity in newborns. These holes are quickly repaired with a new and fast apposition of dentin from the pre-existing odontoblasts. The detailed dental morphogenesis chronology presented allows us to propose the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus as a suitable model to study mammalian tooth replacement.