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Decreased Mineral Content in MMP-20 Null Mouse Enamel is Prominent During the Maturation Stage
1 Department of Cytokine Biology and 2 Department of Biomineralization, The Forsyth Institute, 140 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115, USA; and Correspondence: * corresponding author, jbartlett{at}forsyth.org During enamel development, matrix metalloproteinase-20 (MMP-20, enamelysin) is expressed early during the secretory stage as the enamel thickens, and kallikrein-4 (KLK-4, EMSP1) is expressed later during the maturation stage as the enamel hardens. Thus, we investigated whether the physical properties of the secretory-/maturation-stage MMP-20 null enamel were significantly different from those of controls. We demonstrated that although, in relative terms, the weight percent of mature mineral in the MMP-20 null mouse enamel was only 7–16% less than that in controls, overall the enamel mineral was reduced by about 50%, and its hardness was decreased by 37%. Percent mineral content by weight was assessed at 3 different developmental stages. Remarkably, the biggest difference in mineral content between MMP-20 null and controls occurred in the nearly mature enamel, when MMP-20 is normally no longer expressed. This suggests that MMP-20 acts either directly or indirectly to facilitate the removal of maturation-stage enamel proteins.
Key Words: enamelysin amelogenin amelogenesis FTIR microhardness
Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 83, No. 12,
909-913 (2004) This article has been cited by other articles:
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