Altered tooth morphogenesis after silencing the planar cell polarity core component, Vangl2

Abstract

Vangl2, one of the core components of the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway, has an important role in the regulation of morphogenesis in several tissues. Although the expression of Vangl2 has been detected in the developing tooth, its role in tooth morphogenesis is not known. In this study, we show that Vangl2 is expressed in the inner dental epithelium (IDE) and in the secondary enamel knots (SEKs) of bell stage tooth germs. Inhibition of Vangl2 expression by siRNA treatment in in vitro-cultured tooth germs resulted in retarded tooth germ growth with deregulated cell proliferation and apoptosis. After kidney transplantation of Vangl2 siRNA-treated tooth germs, teeth were observed to be small and malformed. We also show that Vangl2 is required to maintain the proper pattern of cell alignment in SEKs, which maybe important for the function of SEKs as signaling centers. These results suggest that Vangl2 plays an important role in the morphogenesis of teeth.

Plasticity within the niche ensures the maintenance of a Sox2+ stem cell population in the mouse incisor

“…Among the enriched genes, we examined Vangl2 as a test case because it is a member of the planar cell polarity signalling pathway (non-canonical Wnt). Moreover, its expression has previously been reported in the ameloblasts and odontoblasts of embryonic molars, where it regulates cell alignment (Obara et al, 2017;Wu et al, 2016). We found Vangl2 transcripts in the incisor at E14.5 and in the adult laCL.…”

The planar cell polarity Vangl2 protein: From genetics to cellular and molecular functions

“…The recent years have seen the emergence of novel mammalian models addressing Vangl2 functions beyond conventional PCP functions (table 1). The mouse developing tooth, for instance, has been shown to require Vangl2 at an early step of its morphogenetic program, when a signaling center has to emerge and organize before instillating its differentiation program to the whole dental epithelium [33]. Another model is provided by the mouse tongue been addressed yet and will certainly deserve further immunolocalization studies.…”

Planar cell polarity in organ formation

“…Some of the earliest studies of the PCP pathway in mammalian organ formation highlighted its role in skin and kidney development but there is now an increasing list of other organs for which the PCP pathway has been shown to be required, this includes the heart, lungs, eyes, testes, teeth and tongue among others [7,9,[14][15][16][17][18][19]. A recurrent theme in organogenesis is that the PCP…”