Association between dental age variation and EGF, EGFR, TGFB1, and TGFB2 genetic polymorphisms

Chronological age (CA) refers to the time elapsed since birth, whereas dental age (DA) reflects biological maturation based on dental development. In clinical practice the assessment of dental development supports diagnosis and treatment planning. Understanding the biological factors involved in dental maturation is therefore essential.

This study aimed to investigate whether polymorphisms in specific genes encoding growth factors are associated with DA variation.

This study analyzed panoramic radiographs from orthodontic records of 7‑ to 16-year-old Brazilian patients from a public university dental clinic. The Demirjian method was used to determine the dental maturity, using the Dental Age mobile app (Crescendo Treinamentos Avançados Ltda, Curitiba, Brazil). Saliva samples were collected for DNA extraction. Eight genetic polymorphisms in EGF (rs2237051, rs4444903), EGFR (rs2227983, rs763317), TGFB1 (rs1800469, rs4803455), and TGFB2 (rs764522, rs3087465) were evaluated using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A linear regression was performed to evaluate proportional bias between CA and DA. Kruskal-Wallis's test was used to compare delta DA-CA between genotypes.

A total of 60 participants (26 [43.3%] boys and 34 girls [56.7%]) were included in this study. The mean chronological age was 12.55 (standard deviation [SD] = 2.25), and the mean dental age was 13.06 (SD = 1.99). There was no bias between CA and DA estimated by the Demirjian method (p = 0.100). The mean delta DA-CA was 0.50 (SD = 1.25), which indicates an overestimation of age for the Demirjian method. In the genotype distribution analysis, no significant differences in DA were observed among the genotypes: rs2237051 (p = 0.563), rs4444903 (p = 0.399), rs2227983 (p = 0.708), rs763317 (p = 0.738), rs1800469 (p = 0.622), rs4803455 (p = 0.124), rs764522 (p = 0.716), and rs3087465 (p = 0.421).

In this preliminary investigation, the studied genetic polymorphisms in EGFR, EGF, TGFB1, and TGFB2 were not found to be related to the observed variation in DA, highlighting the need for further studies in larger populations.