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Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Evaluation of Planar-Cell-Polarity Phenotypes in Ciliopathy Mouse Mutant Cochlea
Published on: February 21, 2016
Altered tooth morphogenesis after silencing the planar cell polarity core component, Vangl2
Zhaoming Wu1, Don Jeevanie Epasinghe1, Jinquan He2
1Applied Oral Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Vangl2, one of the core components of the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway, has an important role in the regulation of morphogenesis in several tissues. Although the expression of Vangl2 has been detected in the developing tooth, its role in tooth morphogenesis is not known. In this study, we show that Vangl2 is expressed in the inner dental epithelium (IDE) and in the secondary enamel knots (SEKs) of bell stage tooth germs. Inhibition of Vangl2 expression by siRNA treatment in in vitro-cultured tooth germs resulted in retarded tooth germ growth with deregulated cell proliferation and apoptosis. After kidney transplantation of Vangl2 siRNA-treated tooth germs, teeth were observed to be small and malformed. We also show that Vangl2 is required to maintain the proper pattern of cell alignment in SEKs, which maybe important for the function of SEKs as signaling centers. These results suggest that Vangl2 plays an important role in the morphogenesis of teeth.
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