D uring mammalian tooth formation, two proteinases are secreted by ameloblasts: enamelysin (MMP-20) and kallikrein-4 (KLK4). Enamelysin is the early protease. It is expressed by ameloblasts throughout the secretory stage and part of the maturation stage. KLK4 is the late protease; its expression by ameloblasts begins in the transition stage and continues throughout enamel maturation. 5 Expressi...

D uring mammalian tooth formation, two proteinases are secreted by ameloblasts: enamelysin (MMP-20) and kallikrein-4 (KLK4). Enamelysin is the early protease. It is expressed by ameloblasts throughout the secretory stage and part of the maturation stage. KLK4 is the late protease; its expression by ameloblasts begins in the transition stage and continues throughout enamel maturation. 5 Expressi...

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is present in porcine enamel extracts and is critical for proper mineralization of tooth enamel. Here, we show that the mRNA of latent TGF-β1 is expressed throughout amelogenesis. Latent TGF-β1 is activated by matrix metalloproteinase 20 (MMP20), coinciding with amelogenin processing by the same proteinase. Activated TGF-β1 binds to the major amelogenin cl...

BACKGROUND Amelogenesis Imperfecta (AI) is a disorder of tooth development where there is an abnormal formation of enamel or the external layer of teeth. The aim of this study was to screen mutations in the four most important candidate genes, ENAM, KLK4, MMP20 and FAM83H responsible for amelogenesis imperfect. METHODS Geneomic DNA was isolated from five Iranian families with 22 members affec...

Mutation of distal-less homeobox 3 (DLX3) is responsible for human tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO) with amelogenesis imperfecta, indicating a crucial role of DLX3 in amelogenesis. However, the expression pattern of DLX3 and its specific function in amelogenesis remain largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of DLX3 on enamel matrix protein (EMP) genes. By immun...

Neuroimaging studies of audiovisual speech processing have exclusively addressed listeners' native language (L1). Yet, several behavioural studies now show that AV processing plays an important role in non-native (L2) speech perception. The current fMRI study measured brain activity during auditory, visual, audiovisual congruent and audiovisual incongruent utterances in L1 and L2. BOLD response...

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to to characterize and analyze in-situ flow and transport within the vadose zone during a mid-scale hydrologic infiltration experiment. This project has employed numerical and experimental tools developed under a previously funded EMSP proposal (project number 55332) to provide 3-D unsaturated hydrologic property distributions. In the present pr...

BACKGROUND Human kallikrein 4 (gene, KLK4; protein, hK4), a recently discovered member of the kallikrein gene family, shares many characteristics with prostate-specific antigen, the best available marker for prostate cancer. Because the protein has not been detected in any human tissue, we attempted to develop immunologic methods for hK4 analysis and use them to detect hK4 in healthy and cancer...

P cancer is the third leading cause of malignancy-related deaths in North America. Despite the availability of such good markers as the two members of the kallikrein family, prostate specific antigen (PSA), and human glandular kallikrein 2 (hK2), the necessity to find additional markers still remains to differentiate aggressive from nonaggressive forms of this cancer. In the quest of further ch...