MEPE/OF45, a New Dentin/Bone Matrix Protein and Candidate Gene for Dentin Diseases Mapping to Chromosome 4q21

Substantial progress has been made regarding the molecular etiology of the dentin diseases dentinogenesis imperfecta types II and III, and dentin dysplasia type II. Genetic linkage studies have identified the critical loci for these diseases on human chromosome 4q21. Located within an overlapping segment of these disease loci is a dentin/bone gene cluster that includes osteopontin, bone sialoprotein, dentin matrix protein 1, dentin sialophosphoprotein, and a new gene MEPE also known as OF45, renamed osteoregulin. In this paper, we report the location of MEPE/OF45 in relationship to the other members of the dentin/bone gene cluster as well as the genomic organization of the human gene. For the first time, MEPE/OF45 expression was shown in dental tissue, in particular odontoblasts, by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification and characterization of a partial mouse cDNA. Our data provide the first evidence that MEPE/OF45 is expressed during odontogenesis and should be considered as a candidate gene for dentin structural diseases mapping to human chromosome 4q21.