Detection of bromo-deoxyuridine- and proliferating cell nuclear antigen-immunoreactivities in tooth germ

The development of antibodies to cell cycle-related antigens provides the basis for immunochemical studies on cell kinetics. Bromo-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporated by S-phase traversing cells is an exogenous marker of replicating cells, whereas proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is an endogenous marker of replicating cells. We have applied monoclonal antibodies to BrdU and PCNA to study cell kinetics in tooth germ by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. BrdU-antibody reacted only with S phase-traversing cells in pulse-labelling experiments, whereas PCNA-antibody reacted with G1, S and G2-M phases traversing cells. Although the number of PCNA-positive cells largely exceeded the number of BrdU-labelled cells, the pattern distribution of immunoreactive cells was similar using BrdU- and PCNA-antibodies as revealed by immunohistochemistry. The use of PCNA-antibody allowed the detection of proliferating cells also in human tooth germ. It is suggested that combined identification of BrdU and PCNA on one side and growth factors, oncoproteins or differentiation markers on the other side may constitute a useful approach to understand the mechanisms of cell differentiation in tooth germ.