| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
© 2001 SAGE Publications Molecular Insights into the Lineage-specific Determination of Odontoblasts: The Role of Cbfa1'Department of Orthodontics, Dental Branch, Room 370, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6516 John Freeman Avenue, Houston, TX 77030
'Department of Orthodontics, Dental Branch, Room 370, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6516 John Freeman Avenue, Houston, TX 77030
'Department of Orthodontics, Dental Branch, Room 370, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6516 John Freeman Avenue, Houston, TX 77030
Department of Oral Cell Biology, ACTA, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Department of Orthodontics, Dental Branch, Room 370, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6516 John Freeman Avenue, Houston, TX 77030, rdsouza{at}mail.db.uth.tmc.edu The role of stable transcription complexes in initiating and consolidating programs of gene expression during lineage specification has been extensively studied. Despite the progress made in the identification of key molecules of tooth initiation and patterning, the mechanisms leading to cell differentiation during odontogenesis are unknown. Odontoblasts are exclusive dentin-producing cells that are phenotypically and functionally distinct from osteoblasts. However, not much is known about the precise determinants of odontoblast terminal differentiation-in particular, how the fate of these cells becomes delineated from that of osteogenic mesenchyme. Cbfa1(-/-) mice completely lack osteoblasts and bone, while tooth development arrests at the time of odontoblast differentiation. The purpose of this paper is to overview our studies on the role of Cbfa1 in odontoblast determination and differentiation using the Cbfa1(-/-) mouse model and various experimental approaches. Our expression analyses confirm the down-regulation of Cbfal expression in newly differentiated and functional odontoblasts. Second, we demonstrate that Cbfa1(-/-) incisor organs arrest at a later stage than molars, and that al(I) :ollagen, a marker of odontoblast differentiation shared in common with osteoblasts, is not significantly affected by the absence of the transcription factor. Interestingly, Dspp expression in Cbfa1(-/-) appeared markedly down-regulated in putative odontoblasts. The overexpression of Cbfa1 in an odontoblast cell line (MDPC-23) results in the selective down-regulation of Dspp and not type I collagen. It is likely that, in addition to its influence on tooth epithelial morphogenesis, Cbfa1 plays a non-redundant and stage-specific role in the lineage determination and terminal differentiation of odontoblasts from dental papilla mesenchyme.
Key Words: Odontoblasts • osteoblasts • Cbfa I • Dspp • dentin matrix genes.
Advances in Dental Research, Vol. 15, No. 1,
19-24 (2001) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
