Pretend that in characterizing a new BMP family member you find that when added
ID: 65558 • Letter: P
Question
Pretend that in characterizing a new BMP family member you find that when added to tooth progenitor cells in culture, different concentrations of the BMP cause formation of different types of teeth. For example, if a high BMP concentration is added the cells make molars, if a medium concentration is added they make canines, and if a low concentration is added they make incisors. However, when you perform an immunolocalization experiment on embryos, you find that this BMP accumulates uniformly throughout the tooth primordium (the tissue that will develop into the different types of teeth in vivo). Propose and Explain a mechanism that could account for these observations.
Explanation / Answer
The concentration of BMPs or Bone morphogenetic proteins have been known to locally influence bone formation ( Groeneveld and Burger, 2000). BMPs have been reported to induce chemotaxis of monocytes in a concentration dependent manner. Chemotaxis of monocytes occurs by small concentrations of BMPs-3 and -4 and OP-1 wherease BMP-2 was found to be chemotactic for osteoblast. Other than this there are several other factors which are known to be influenced by different concentrations of BMPs, such as fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), prostaglandins and TGFb. They along with BMPs determine the overall fate and structure formed by these concentration gradients of BMPs.
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