This review focuses on the process of enamel maturation, a series of events associated with slow, progressive growth in the width and thickness of apatitic crystals. This developmental step causes gradual physical hardening and transformation of soft, newly formed enamel into one of the most durable mineralized tissues produced biologically. Enamel is the secretory product of specialized epithelial cells, the ameloblasts, which make this covering on the crowns of teeth in two steps. First, they roughly "map out" the location and limits (overall thickness) of the entire extracellular layer as a protein-rich, acellular, and avascular matrix filled with thin, ribbon-like crystals of carbonated hydroxyapatite. These initial crystals are organized spatially into rod and interrod territories as they form, and rod crystals are lengthened by Tomes' processes in tandem with appositional movement of ameloblasts away from the dentin surface. Once the full thickness of enamel has been formed, ameloblasts initiate a series of repetitive morphological changes at the enamel surface in which tight junctions and deep membrane infoldings periodically appear (ruffle-ended), then disappear for short intervals (smooth-ended), from the apical ends of the cells. As this happens, the enamel covered by these cells changes rhythmically in net pH from mildly acidic (ruffle-ended) to near-physiologic (smooth-ended) as mineral crystals slowly expand into the "spaces" (volume) formerly occupied by matrix proteins and water. Matrix proteins are processed and degraded by proteinases throughout amelogenesis, but they undergo more rapid destruction once ameloblast modulation begins. Ruffle-ended ameloblasts appear to function primarily as a regulatory and transport epithelium for controlling the movement of calcium and other ions such as bicarbonate into enamel to maintain buffering capacity and driving forces optimized for surface crystal growth. The reason ruffle-ended ameloblasts become smooth-ended periodically is unknown, although this event seems to be crucial for sustaining long-term crystal growth.

Although the endocrine capacity of bone is widely recognized, interactions between bone and the reproductive system have until now focused on the gonads as a regulator of bone remodeling. We now show that in males, bone acts as a regulator of fertility. Using co-culture assays, we demonstrate that osteoblasts are able to induce testosterone production by the testes, while they fail to influence estrogen production by the ovaries. Analyses of cell-specific loss- and gain-of-function models reveal that the osteoblast-derived hormone osteocalcin performs this endocrine function. By binding to a G-protein coupled receptor expressed in the Leydig cells of the testes, osteocalcin regulates in a CREB-dependent manner the expression of enzymes required for testosterone synthesis, promoting germ cell survival. This study expands the physiological repertoire of osteocalcin, and provides the first evidence that the skeleton is an endocrine regulator of reproduction.

Most vestibular nerve afferents can be classified as regularly or irregularly discharging. Two factors are theoretically identified as being potentially responsible for differences in discharge regularity. The first, ascribable to synaptic noise, is the variance (sigma v2) characterizing the transmembrane voltage fluctuations of the axon's spike trigger site, i.e., the place where impulses normally arise. The second factor is the slope (dmuv/dt) of the trigger site's postspike recovery function. Were (dmuv/dt) a major determinant of discharge regularity, the theory predicts that the more irregular the discharge of a unit, the greater should be its sensitivity to externally applied galvanic currents and the faster should be the postspike recovery of its electrical excitability. The predictions would not hold if differences in the discharge regularity between units largely reflected variations in sigma v. To test these predictions, the responses of vestibular nerve afferents to externally applied galvanic currents were studied in the barbiturate-anesthetized squirrel monkey. Current steps of 5-s duration and short (50 microsecond) shocks were delivered by way of the perilymphatic space of the vestibule. Results were similar regardless of which end organ an afferent innervated. The regularity of discharge of each unit was expressed by a normalized coefficient of variation (CV*). The galvanic sensitivity (beta p) of a unit, measured from its response to current steps, was linearly related to discharge regularity (CV*), there being approximately 20-fold variations in both variables across the afferent population. Various geometric factors--including fiber diameter, position of individual axons within the various nerve branches, and the configuration of unmyelinated processes within the sensory epithelium--are unlikely to have made a major contribution to the positive relation between beta P and CV*. The postspike recovery of electrical excitability was measured as response thresholds to shocks, synchronized to follow naturally occurring impulses at several different delays. Recovery in irregular units was more rapid than in regular units. Evidence is presented that externally applied currents acted at the spike trigger site rather than elsewhere in the sensory transduction process. We argue that the irregular discharge of some vestibular afferents offers no functional advantage in the encoding and transmission of sensory information. Rather, the irregularity of discharge is better viewed as a consequence of the enhanced sensitivity of these units to depolarizing influences, including afferent and efferent synaptic inputs.

As germ cells divide and differentiate from spermatogonia to spermatozoa, they share a number of structural and functional features that are common to all generations of germ cells and these features are discussed herein. Germ cells are linked to one another by large intercellular bridges which serve to move molecules and even large organelles from the cytoplasm of one cell to another. Mitochondria take on different shapes and features and topographical arrangements to accommodate their specific needs during spermatogenesis. The nuclear envelope and pore complex also undergo extensive modifications concomitant with the development of germ cell generations. Apoptosis is an event that is normally triggered by germ cells and involves many proteins. It occurs to limit the germ cell pool and acts as a quality control mechanism. The ubiquitin pathway comprises enzymes that ubiquitinate as well as deubiquitinate target proteins and this pathway is present and functional in germ cells. Germ cells express many proteins involved in water balance and pH control as well as voltage-gated ion channel movement. In the nucleus, proteins undergo epigenetic modifications which include methylation, acetylation, and phosphorylation, with each of these modifications signaling changes in chromatin structure. Germ cells contain specialized transcription complexes that coordinate the differentiation program of spermatogenesis, and there are many male germ cell-specific differences in the components of this machinery. All of the above features of germ cells will be discussed along with the specific proteins/genes and abnormalities to fertility related to each topic.

Epithelial-mesenchymal interactions guide tooth development through its early stages and establish the morphology of the dentin surface upon which enamel will be deposited. Starting with the onset of amelogenesis beneath the future cusp tip, the shape of the enamel layer covering the crown is determined by five growth parameters. Appositional growth occurs at a mineralization front along the ameloblast distal membrane in which amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) ribbons form and lengthen. The ACP ribbons convert to calcium hydroxyapatite as the ribbons elongate. Appositional growth involves a secretory cycle that leaves an imprint of incremental lines. A potentially important function of enamel proteins is to ensure alignment of successive mineral increments on the tips of enamel ribbons deposited in the previous cycle so the crystallites lengthen with each cycle. Enamel crystallites harden in a maturation process that involves mineral deposition on the sides of existing crystallites until they interlock with adjacent crystallites. Neutralization of acidity generated by hydroxyapatite formation is a key part of the mechanism. Here we review the growth parameters that determine the shape of the enamel crown as well as the mechanisms of enamel appositional growth and maturation.