Expressions of c-jun and jun-B proto-oncogenes in odontoblasts during development of bovine tooth germs.

c-jun and jun-B genes are among the nuclear proto-oncogenes induced by growth factors such as the TGF-beta superfamily and play important roles in cell differentiation. These gene products enhance expressions of proteins including osteocalcin, alkaline phosphatase, and collagens. On the other hand, it is well-known that the TGF-beta superfamily affects odontoblast differentiation, and that differentiated odontoblasts express extracellular and membrane proteins as described above. However, there are few reports of factors that participate in the transcriptional regulation of odontoblasts. Especially, little is known about the expression of c-jun and jun-B genes. In this study, we focused on the examination of expressions of c-jun and jun-B genes in dental papillae of bovine tooth germs. Using in situ hybridization, we found that these genes were expressed only in the odontoblastic lineage, but not in other dental papilla cells. Levels of c-jun and jun-B mRNAs increased along the gradient of differentiation of odontoblasts. These levels of c-jun mRNAs were maintained in both young and mature odontoblasts. However, unlike the c-jun gene, expression of the jun-B gene became sparse in mature odontoblasts compared with young odontoblasts. For further analysis, Northern hybridization of total RNA extracted from differentiated odontoblasts was performed for the examination of levels of jun-B mRNAs, indicating that levels of jun-B mRNAs of mature odontoblasts were clearly less than those of young odontoblasts. These results suggest that c-jun and jun-B genes may participate in the transcriptional regulation of odontoblasts of bovine tooth germs, and may control the odontoblast phenotype. Furthermore, our results suggest that these genes can be markers of odontoblasts during dentinogenesis; especially, high expression of jun-B gene can be a marker of young odontoblasts that start to form the new dentin matrix.