Dioxins are ubiquitous environmental poisons that cause disturbances in developing organs, including the teeth. Exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) at the cap stage leads to reduced tooth size and deformation of cuspal morphology. Our hypothesis was that TCDD affects the expression of genes specific for tooth development, which leads to these aberrations. Mouse embryonic E14 tooth germs were cultured for 24 hrs with/without 1 μM TCDD. Analysis of total RNA on Affymetrix arrays showed that TCDD altered the expression of 31 known genes by a fold factor of at least 2. Genes implied in tooth development expressed only slight changes. Genes active at the cap stage were selected for quantitative PCR analysis. Of these, the most highly up-regulated were Follistatin and Runx2, while TGFβ1 and p21 were the most down-regulated genes. Incomplete tooth morphogenesis caused by TCDD may thus result from modified expression of developmentally regulated genes.
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