Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium

Enamel, covering the surface of teeth, is the hardest substance in mammals. It is designed to last a lifetime in spite of severe environmental challenges. Enamel is formed in a biomineralization process that is essentially divided into secretory and maturation stages. While the molecular events of e...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ganss, Bernhard, Abbarin, Nastaran
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174742/
id pubmed-4174742
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-41747422014-10-10 Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium Ganss, Bernhard Abbarin, Nastaran Physiology Enamel, covering the surface of teeth, is the hardest substance in mammals. It is designed to last a lifetime in spite of severe environmental challenges. Enamel is formed in a biomineralization process that is essentially divided into secretory and maturation stages. While the molecular events of enamel formation during the secretory stage have been elucidated to some extent, the mechanisms of enamel maturation are less defined, and little is known about the molecules present beyond the maturation stage. Several genes, all located within the secreted calcium-binding phosphoprotein (SCPP) gene cluster, were recently shown to be expressed during the developmental continuum from maturation stage ameloblasts to junctional epithelium (JE). This review introduces four such genes and their protein products, and presents our current state of knowledge on their roles, primarily in enamel formation and JE biology. The discovery of these proteins, and a more detailed analysis of their biological functions, will likely contribute to a more thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms of enamel maturation and dentogingival attachment. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4174742/ /pubmed/25309457 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2014.00371 Text en Copyright © 2014 Ganss and Abbarin. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Ganss, Bernhard
Abbarin, Nastaran
spellingShingle Ganss, Bernhard
Abbarin, Nastaran
Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
author_facet Ganss, Bernhard
Abbarin, Nastaran
author_sort Ganss, Bernhard
title Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
title_short Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
title_full Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
title_fullStr Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
title_full_unstemmed Maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
title_sort maturation and beyond: proteins in the developmental continuum from enamel epithelium to junctional epithelium
description Enamel, covering the surface of teeth, is the hardest substance in mammals. It is designed to last a lifetime in spite of severe environmental challenges. Enamel is formed in a biomineralization process that is essentially divided into secretory and maturation stages. While the molecular events of enamel formation during the secretory stage have been elucidated to some extent, the mechanisms of enamel maturation are less defined, and little is known about the molecules present beyond the maturation stage. Several genes, all located within the secreted calcium-binding phosphoprotein (SCPP) gene cluster, were recently shown to be expressed during the developmental continuum from maturation stage ameloblasts to junctional epithelium (JE). This review introduces four such genes and their protein products, and presents our current state of knowledge on their roles, primarily in enamel formation and JE biology. The discovery of these proteins, and a more detailed analysis of their biological functions, will likely contribute to a more thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms of enamel maturation and dentogingival attachment.
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate 2014
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174742/
_version_ 1613137193208905728