Get Your Head in the Game -- One Gene's Role in Cranial Development
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In an article published in Scientific Reports, a group of researchers from TMDU determined that expression of a gene called Distal-less homeobox 5 (Dlx5) assists certain cells in the mouse head mature into cartilage cells, while others become bone cells. This is critical for proper cranial formation.
Neural crest cells (NCCs) have been a recent focus of developmental biology research because they can transition into many cell types including neurons, and those in the head region additionally differentiate into bone and cartilage. NCCs form an initial layer that constructs dermis and the meninges in early stages of development, then another group of NCCs present at the supraorbital region becomes bone forming cells and the cell domain expands apically as the overlying layer to form the calvarium to protect the brain. From these previous observations, the TMDU group became interested in how experimentally increasing Dlx5 expression would affect NCC differentiation.
"We worked with a mouse model to further understand how over-expressed Dlx5 affects cranial development," says lead author of the study Tri Vu Hoang. "We used a method where we could force higher expression levels of Dlx5 in NCCs in a group of mice, then compared their head development with mice not genetically engineered in this way."
[...] "We saw an interesting response with Dlx5 overexpression in the NCCs," describes Sachiko Iseki, senior author. "NCCs intrinsically forming soft tissues of the initial layer transform into bone and cartilage in the vertex of the Dlx5-engineered mice."
Journal Reference:
Tri H. Vu, Masaki Takechi, Miki Shimizu, et al. Dlx5 -augmentation in neural crest cells reveals early development and differentiation potential of mouse apical head mesenchyme [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81434-x)
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