Absence of mutations in the promoter region of the lef1 gene in Patients with hypodontia

Abstract

Hypodontia, the congenital absence of one or a few permanent teeth, is one of the most frequent alterations of the human dentition. Although hypodontia does not represent a public health problem, it may cause both, speech and masticatory dysfunction as well as esthetic problems. Ablation of Lef1 gene in mice causes complete loss of teeth and interferes with the development of other structures induced by epithelial-mesenchymal interaction. In order to further investigate the role of the Lef1 gene in human hypodontia we analyzed the promoter region of the Lef1 gene in 50 subjects with different patterns of hypodontia and 50 control individuals. The analysis of single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) did not show any polymorphisms/mutations in the region analyzed.