Effect of epithelial depletion of Kdf1 on gene expression alteration during tooth crown development

In our study, we observed that mice lacking epithelial Kdf1 exhibited rounded and blunt molar cusps, accompanied by abnormal folding of dental epithelium, suggesting that epithelial Kdf1 played a regulatory role in molar crown morphogenesis. Nevertheless, the mechanism within dental epithelium regulating tooth crown morphogenesis remains unclear. Overall design: To explore the downstream molecular alterations of Kdf1 deletion, we conducted RNA-Seq of inner enamel epithelium tissue from the mandibular first molar.本研究中，我们观察到上皮细胞Kdf1基因缺失的小鼠呈现磨牙牙尖圆钝的表型，并伴随牙上皮折叠异常，提示上皮Kdf1基因在磨牙牙冠形态发生过程中发挥调控作用。尽管如此，牙上皮内调控牙冠形态发生的具体分子机制仍未阐明。实验设计方案：为探究Kdf1基因缺失后的下游分子变化，我们对下颌第一磨牙的内釉上皮组织进行了RNA测序（RNA-Seq）。