PARTIAL CDNA SEQUENCING OF MOUSE DENTIN SIALOPROTEIN AND DETECTION OFITS SPECIFIC EXPRESSION BY ODONTOBLASTS

Dentine sialoprotein (DSP), a 53-kDa acidic glycoprotein, is expressed by odontoblasts and secreted into the dentine extracellular matrix. A lthough little is known about its biological function, it might play a part in dentinogenesis. Because DSP has only been shown to occur in r at dentine, it is important to demonstrate its existence in another sp ecies. Here, the presence of DSP gene in the mouse genome, and the clo ning of a mouse DSP cDNA coding for about one-fifth of the molecule wi th a nucleotide sequence similar to that for rat cDNA, are reported. U sing in-situ hybridization, DSP mRNA was uniquely detected in mouse od ontoblasts. Copyright (C) Published by 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.