Gene Regulation in the Development of Oral Tissues

Abstract

The regulatory processes associated with tooth formation are being investigated by the identification of when, where, and how cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), substrate adhesion molecules (SAMs), dentin phosphoprotein, enamel gene products, and intermediate cementum products are expressed during sequential developmental stages of morphogenesis, cytodifferentiation, dentin, enamel and cementum extracellular matrix (ECM) formation, and biomineralization. Instructive and permissive signaling is required for both morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation based upon in vitro organotypic culture studies in serumless, chemically-defined medium. Intrinsic developmental instructions, independent of exogenous growth factors, mediate tooth morphogenesis from the initiation of the dental lamina through crown and initial root development. Recent progress using recombinant DNA methods has advanced descriptions of several dental structural genes. The complete nucleic acid sequence for mouse amelogenin has been defined. This sequence is located on the mouse X chromosome and on the human X and Y chromosomes. This discussion summarizes recent results using experimental embryology, recombinant DNA technology, and immunocytology in the context of instructive epithelial-mesenchymal interactions associated with epithelial differentiation into ameloblasts, ectomesenchyme differentiation into odontoblasts, and dentin and enamel ECM biomineralization. The tooth organ provides opportunities at several levels of biological organization to investigate cellular, molecular, and developmental processes.