Establishment and characterization of a spontaneously immortalized mouse ameloblast-lineage cell line.
Tooth development was cooperatively regulated by the epithelial ameloblasts and mesenchymal odontoblasts. Ameloblasts secrete enamel matrix, critical for enamel formation. While there are several reports about establishment of immortalized ameloblast-like cells by introducing viral oncogene, we tried to establish a spontaneously immortalized ameloblast-lineage cell line, maintaining the cell type specific character, including the ability to induce in vitro bio-mineralization. The established cell line (ameloblast-lineage cell; ALC) maintained the expression of several ameloblast specific genes (Amelogenin, Tuftelin, and Enamelin) in long-term culture. They formed calcified nodules after the induction by medium switching from SMEM to DMEM, having high-level alkaline-phosphatase activity. The size and number of calcified nodule formation were enhanced by TGF-beta treatment. Six weeks after sub-cutaneous implantation of ALC to athymic nude mice, we ectopically observed enamel epithelium like structure formation, chondrogenesis, and calcification. These data indicate that ALC is a useful experimental tool to analyze ameloblast character.
Nakata
Akira
A
Department of Biochemistry, Akita University School of Medicine, Hondo 1-1-1, Akita 010-8543, Japan.
Kameda
Takashi
T
Nagai
Hirokazu
H
Ikegami
Kenji
K
Duan
Yuqing
Y
Terada
Kunihiko
K
Sugiyama
Toshihiro
T
D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000378:metabolism; D000565:Ameloblasts / Q000166:cytology*; D053523:Amelogenin; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D003746:Dental Enamel Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008819:Mice, Nude; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014070:Tooth / Q000166:cytology*; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000378:metabolism
D053523:Amelogenin; C507200:Amelx protein, mouse; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D003746:Dental Enamel Proteins; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; C038456:tuftelin; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D002118:Calcium