TY  - JOUR
TI  - Disrupted odontoblast differentiation and dentin dysplasia in <em>Epiprofin</em>-deficient mice
AU  - Jiménez-Rojo, Lucia
AU  - de Vega, Susana
AU  - Ibarretxe, Gaskon
AU  - Nakamura, Takashi
AU  - Unda, Fernando J.
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - Tooth formation is a process tightly regulated by reciprocal interactions between epithelial and mesenchymal tissues. These epithelial-mesenchyme interactions regulate the expression of target genes via transcription factors. Among the regulatory elements governing this process, Epiprofin/Sp6 is a zinc finger transcription factor which is expressed in the embryonic dental epithelium and in differentiating pre-odontoblasts. Epiprofin knockout (Epfn-/-) mice present severe dental abnormalities, such as supernumerary teeth and enamel hypoplasia. Here, we describe dentin defects in molars and incisors of Epfn-/- mice. We observed that in the absence of Epfn, markers of early odontoblast differentiation, such as alkaline phosphatase activity, Dsp/Dpp expression, and Collagen Type I deposition, are downregulated. In addition, the expression of tight and gap junction proteins was severely impaired in the predontoblastic cell layer of developing Epfn-/- molars. Altogether, our data shows that Epfn is crucial for the proper differentiation of dental mesenchymal cells towards functional odontoblasts and subsequent dentin-matrix deposition.      
PY  - 2024
DO  - 10.1387/ijdb.240029lj
VL  - 68
IS  - 1
SP  - 19
EP  - 24
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/240029lj
Y2  - 2024/05/17/06:18:02
ER  -