N-cadherin is Required for Cytodifferentiation during Zebrafish Odontogenesis
- Authors
- Verstraeten, B., van Hengel, J., Sanders, E., Van Roy, F., and Huysseune, A.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-130222-15
- Date
- 2013
- Source
- Journal of dental research 92(4): 365-370 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Huysseune, Ann
- Keywords
- tooth development, tooth replacement, adherens junction, cdh2, Danio rerio, parachute mutant
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cadherins/genetics
- Cadherins/metabolism*
- Cell Differentiation/genetics
- Cell Differentiation/physiology*
- Odontoblasts/metabolism
- Odontogenesis/genetics
- Odontogenesis/physiology*
- Tissue Distribution
- Tooth Germ/growth & development
- Tooth Germ/metabolism*
- Zebrafish
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 23396519 Full text @ J. Dent. Res.
N-cadherin is a well-studied classic cadherin involved in multiple developmental processes and is also known to have a signaling function. Using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model, we tested the hypothesis that tooth morphogenesis is accompanied by dynamic changes in N-cadherin distribution and that absence of N-cadherin disturbs tooth development. N-cadherin, encoded by the gene cdh2, is absent during the initiation and morphogenesis stages of both primary (first-generation) and replacement teeth, as demonstrated by immunohistochemistry. However, N-cadherin is up-regulated at the onset of differentiation of cells of the inner dental epithelium and the dental papilla, i.e., the ameloblasts and odontoblasts, respectively. In the inner dental epithelium, N-cadherin is co-expressed with E-cadherin, excluding the occurrence of cadherin switching such as observed during human tooth development. While early lethality of N-cadherin knockout mice prevents any functional study of N-cadherin in mouse odontogenesis, zebrafish parachute (pac) mutants, deficient for N-cadherin, survive beyond the age when primary teeth normally start to form. In these mutants, the first tooth forms, but its development stops at the early cytodifferentiation stage. N-cadherin deficiency also completely inhibits the development of the other first-generation teeth, possibly due to the absence of N-cadherin signaling once the first tooth has differentiated.