Objectives To develop and present the methods utilized for the Dental, Oral, Medical Epidemiological (DOME) study. Methods The DOME is an electronic record-based cross-sectional study, that was conducted to measure the dental, periodontal, and oral morbidities and their associations with systemic morbidities, among a nationally representative sample of young to middle-aged adults military personnel from the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). To that end, we developed a strict protocol including standardized terminology, data collection, and handling. Results Data for the DOME study was derived simultaneously from three electronic records of the IDF: (1) a central demographic database, (2) the dental patient record (DPR), and (3) the medical computerized patient record (CPR). The established DOME repository includes socio-demographic, dental and medical records of 132,354 young to middle-age military personnel from the IDF, who attended the dental clinics during the year 2015. Records of general military personnel (N > 50,000), with no recorded dental visits during the study period, served as a control group regarding all other parameters except dental. The DOME study continues and is currently collecting longitudinal data from the year 2010 until 2020. The IDF employs a standardized uniform administrative and clinical work-up and treatment protocols as well as uniform computerized codes. We describe the standardized definitions for all the parameters that were included: socio-demographics, health-related habits, medical and dental attendance patterns, and general and dental health status. Multicollinearity analysis results of the sociodemographic and medical study parameters are presented. Conclusion Standardized work-up and definitions are essential to establish the centralized DOME data repository to study the extent of dental and systemic morbidities and their associations.

The amelogenin protein is considered as the major molecular marker of developing ectodermal enamel. Recent data suggest other roles for amelogenin beyond structural regulation of enamel mineral crystal growth. Here we describe our novel discovery of amelogenin expression in long bone cells, in cartilage cells, in cells of the epiphyseal growth plate, and in bone marrow stromal cells. Anat Rec, 290:455-460, 2007. 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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The amelogenin protein is considered as the major molecular marker of developing and mineralizing ectodermal enamel. It regulates the shape, size, and direction of growth of the enamel mineral crystallite. Recent data suggest other roles for amelogenin beyond regulation of enamel mineral crystal growth. The present study describes our recent discovery of amelogenin expression in soft tissues: in brain and in cells of the hematopoietic system, such as macrophages, megakaryocytes and in some of the hematopoietic stem cells. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) followed by cDNA sequencing revealed, in mouse brain, two amelogenin mRNA isoforms: the full-length amelogenin including exon 4, and the isoform lacking exon 4. Immunohistochemistry revealed amelogenin expression in brain glial cells. Mouse macrophages were found to express the full-length amelogenin sequence lacking exon 4. Confocal microscopy revealed colocalization of amelogenin and CD41 (a megakaryocyte marker), as well as amelogenin and CD34 (a hematopoietic stem cell marker) in some of the bone marrow cells. The expression of amelogenin, a major structural protein of the mineralizing extracellular enamel matrix, also in cells of non-mineralizing soft tissues, suggests that amelogenin is multifunctional. Several different potential functions of amelogenin are discussed.

Tuftelin has been suggested to play an important role during the development and mineralization of enamel, but its precise function is still unclear. This article reviews major milestones in the discovery, structural characterization, expression, localization, and conservation of tuftelin in different vertebrate species. It focuses on the structure of the human tuftelin gene, which has recently been deciphered [12]. It describes the exon-intron organization, sizes and structure, the promoter structure, and the newly discovered alternatively spliced human tooth-bud tuftelin mRNA transcripts. It also examines information on the structural motifs in the human-derived tuftelin protein and how they relate to tuftelin from other species. It reviews our recent results on the transcription of tuftelin mRNA and protein expression in several nonmineralizing soft tissues, using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) followed by DNA cloning and sequencing, indirect immunohistochemistry, immunohistochemistry combined with confocal microscopy, and in situ hybridization. These results and earlier Northern blot results show that tuftelin, in addition to being expressed in the developing and mineralizing tooth, is also expressed in several nonmineralizing soft tissues, suggesting that tuftelin has a universal function and/or a multifunctional role.