The increased levels of lipid peroxidation may play a role in the inflammation and destruction of the periodontium in periodontitis.

The transcription factors Runx2 and Osx are necessary for osteoblast and odontoblast differentiation, while Dspp is important for odontoblast differentiation. The relationship among Runx2, Osx, and Dspp during tooth and craniofacial bone development remains unknown. In this study, we hypothesized that the roles of Runx2 and Osx in the regulation of osteoblast and odontoblast lineages may be independent of one another. The results showed that Runx2 expression overlapped with Osx in dental and osteogenic mesenchyme from E12 to E16. At the later stages, from E18 to PN14, Runx2 and Osx expressions remained intense in alveolar bone osteoblasts. However, Runx2 expression was down-regulated, whereas Osx expression was clearly seen in odontoblasts. At later stages, Dspp transcription was weakly present in osteo-blasts, but strong in odontoblasts where Osx was highly expressed. In mouse odontoblast-like cells, Osx overexpression increased Dspp transcription. Analysis of these data suggests differential biological functions of Runx2, Osx, and Dspp during odontogenesis and osteogenesis.

The imbalance between the levels of myeloperoxidase/IL-1beta and glutathione peroxidase/lactoferrin could result in tissue damage of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in periodontitis which is initiated and perpetuated by the chronic insults of periodontopathogens.

Dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) consists of dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and dentin phosphoprotein (DPP). The spatial-temporal expression of DSPP is largely restricted during differentiational stages of dental cells. DSPP plays a vital role in tooth development. It is known that an osteoblast-specific transcription factor, Runx2, is essential for osteoblast differentiation. However, effects of Runx2 on DSPP transcription remain unknown. Here, we studied different roles of Runx2 in controlling DSPP expression in mouse preodontoblast (MD10-F2) and odontoblast (MO6-G3) cells. Two Runx2 isoforms were expressed in preodontoblast and odontoblast cells, and in situ hybridization assay showed that DSPP expression increased, whereas Runx2 was downregulated during odontoblast differentiation and maturation. Three potential Runx2 sites are present in promoters of mouse and rat DSPP genes. Runx2 binds to these sites as demonstrated by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and supershift experiments. Mutations of Runx2 sites in mouse DSPP promoter resulted in a decline of promoter activity in MD10-F2 cells compared with an increase of its activity in MO6-G3 cells. Multiple Runx2 sites were more active than a single site in regulating the DSPP promoter. Furthermore, forced overexpression of Runx2 isoforms induced increases of endogenous DSPP protein levels in MD10-F2 cells but reduced its expression in MO6-G3 cells consistent with the DSPP promoter analysis. Thus, our results suggest that differential positive and negative regulation of DSPP by Runx2 is dependent on use of cytodifferentiation of dental ectomesenchymal-derived cells that may contribute to the spatial-temporal expression of DSPP during tooth development.Tooth organogenesis is the result of reciprocal interactions between epithelial-mesenchymal cells leading to the terminal differentiation of matrix-producing cells (1-2). Dental papilla mesenchymal cells give rise to dental pulp cells, which maintain the homeostasis of dental mineralized tissues and support dentin, and odontoblasts, which synthesize dentin extracellular matrix. Recently, several in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that dental pulp cells are capable of differentiating into odontoblasts and producing a mineralizing matrix, particularly during reparative dentinogenesis associated with injury and disease (3, 4).Odontoblast and dental pulp cells synthesize and secrete several collagenous and non-collagenous proteins (NCPs) 1 to form a unique dentin extracellular matrix. Dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) is a phosphorylated parent protein that is cleaved post-translationally into two dentin NCPs: dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and dentin phosphoprotein (DPP) (5-6). DSPP gene is encoded by five exons and four introns (7) with the DSP sequences located at the NH 2 terminus (exons 1-4 and the 5Ј region of exon 5) and the DPP domain found at the COOH region (remainder of exon 5). DSP and DPP contain high levels of carbohydrate and sialic acid as well as aspartic acid and phosphoserine, suggesting a fu...

Cell migration is essential to cancer invasion and metastasis and is spatially and temporally integrated through transcriptionally dependent and independent mechanisms. Since cell migration is studied in vitro, it is important to identify genes that both drive cell migration and are biologically relevant in promoting invasion and metastasis in patients with cancer. Here, gene expression profiling and a high throughput cell migration system answers this question in human bladder cancer. In vitro migration rates of 40 microarray profiled human bladder cancer cell lines were measured by radial migration assay (RMA). Genes whose expression was either directly or inversely associated with cell migration rate were identified and subsequently evaluated for their association with cancer stage in 61 patients. This analysis identified genes known to be associated with cell invasion such as versican, and novel ones, including metallothionein E1 (MTE1) and nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), whose expression correlated positively with cancer cell migration and tumor stage. Using loss of function analysis, we show that MTE1 and NNMT are necessary for cancer cell migration. These studies provide a general approach to identify the clinically relevant genes in cancer cell migration and mechanistically implicate two novel genes in this process in human bladder cancer.