Spatial and temporal expression of Sox9 during murine incisor development.

Mouse incisors are capable of continuously growing due to the renewal of dental epithelium stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells residing at the proximal ends. The transcription factor Sox9 plays important roles in maintaining the stem cells of hair follicles, retinal progenitor cells and neural crest stem cells. Whether Sox9 is involved during mouse incisor development is not reported yet. In this study, we examined the expression pattern of Sox9 during mouse incisor development by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Sox9 mRNA and protein showed similar expression pattern from embryonic day (E) 13.5 to postnatal (PN) day 10. At E13.5 and E14.5, Sox9 was strongly expressed in the dental epithelium. At E16.5, Sox9 started to be detected in the mesenchymal cells within the dental pulp, especially the dental pulp cells that adjacent to the labial cervical loop. Similarly with E14.5, Sox9 was strongly detected in the labial cervical loop, including the basal epithelium, the stellate reticulum and the outer enamel epithelium from E16.5 to PN10. The mesenchyme adjacent to the labial cervical loop also showed strong signal of Sox9. The spatiotemporal expression of Sox9 suggested its possible involvement during mouse incisor development.