Review: The regulation of tooth development and morphogenesis

Abstract

A variety of vertebrate organs, including teeth, begins their development by inductive sequential and reciprocal interactions between epithelium and mesenchyme. In tooth development, the interactions between ectodermal-derived epithelium and the cranial neural crest-derived mesenchyme regulate the shape, position, and size of the tooth crown with a functional cusp. During tooth development, many signaling molecules and transcription factors regulate tooth development and morphogenesis. Recently, we reported Epiprofin, an Sp transcription factor, is expressed during tooth development and exerts critical roles in dental epithelial differentiation and the determination of tooth number. In this review, we describe the expression pattern and functions of Epiprofin in tooth development.