title: Differential FGF ligands and FGF receptors expression pattern in frontal and parietal calvarial bones.
abstract: The mammalian skull vault consists mainly of 5 flat bones, the paired frontals and parietals, and the unpaired interparietal. All of these bones are formed by intramembranous ossification within a layer of mesenchyme, the skeletogenic membrane, located between the dermal mesenchyme and the meninges surrounding the brain. While the frontal bones are of neural crest in origin, the parietal bones arise from mesoderm. The present study is a characterization of frontal and parietal bones at their molecular level, aiming to highlight distinct differences between the neural crest-derived frontal and mesodermal-derived parietal bone. We performed a detailed comparative gene expression profile of FGF ligands and their receptors known to play crucial role in skeletogenesis. This analysis revealed that a differential expression pattern of the major FGF osteogenic molecules and their receptors exists between the neural crest-derived frontal bone and the paraxial mesoderm-derived parietal bone. Particularly, the expression of ligands such as Fgf-2, Fgf-9 and Fgf-18 was upregulated in frontal bone on embryonic day 17.5, postnatal day 1 and postnatal day 60 mice. Frontal bone also elaborated higher levels of Fgf receptor 1, 2 and 3 transcripts versus parietal bone. Taken together, these data suggest that the frontal bone is a domain with higher FGF-signaling competence than parietal bone.
authors.affiliation: Children's Surgical Research Program, Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif. 94305-5148, USA. quarto@unina.it
authors.forename: Natalina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Quarto
authors.forename: Bjorn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Behr
authors.forename: Shuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Longaker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005624:Frontal Bone / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D051379:Mice; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D010012:Osteogenesis; D010294:Parietal Bone / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*; D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017468:Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors