Matrix Metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13, Collagenase-3) is Highly Expressed in Human Tooth Pulp

Abstract

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their specific tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) participate into extracellular matrix degradation in physiological and pathological conditions. We hypothesized that MMP expression in pulp tissue changes in response to caries attack and investigated the gene expression profiles of MMPs and TIMPs in pulp tissue of sound and carious teeth with cDNA microarray. cDNA microarray demonstrated an extremely high MMP-13 (collagenase-3) mRNA expression in pooled pulp samples of sound and carious teeth, with less pronounced expression of MMP-16 (MT3-MMP) and TIMP-1. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction of individual pulp samples revealed a wide range of the MMP-13 expression level between pulp samples with possible downregulation of MMP-13 expression during caries progression. Western blot and immunohistochemical staining confirmed the presence of MMP-13 with no observable differences between sound and carious teeth pulp tissues. The results reveal that MMP-13 is expressed and synthesized in pulp tissue, an interesting feature considering the very limited expression of MMP-13 in normal adult tissues. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed to clarify the changes in MMP-13 expression during caries progression.

Genetic variations in MMP9 and MMP13 contribute to tooth agenesis in a Brazilian population

“…MMP2 and MMP9 are gelatinases that can degrade denatured collagens (gelatins) and type IV collagen, which is the major structural component of the ECM (23). MMP13, also called collagenase-3, can degrade ECM components such as collagens, gelatin, aggrecan, perlecan, and fibronectin (24). MMP13 is expressed in hypertrophic chondrocytes and osteoblasts during embryogenesis (25).…”

Role of matrix metalloproteinases in dental caries, pulp and periapical inflammation: An overview

“…MMP-8, MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-3, MMP-2, MMP-14 and MMP-20 are the main MMPs that have been identified in pulp, odontoblasts and predentine/dentine. [8][9][10][11][12][13] MMP-13 has been found to be present in radicular dentine, which was expressed differently as caries progressed, but it was not found to have been expressed in the coronal dentine. 14 The immunoexpression of MMP-13 has been found to be weak and confined to the peritubular area in sound dentine and strong at the peritubular level and in Tome's process in dentine caries, where it decreased as the distance from the decay process increased.…”

Effect of Phosphoric Acid on the Degradation of Human Dentin Matrix

“…Traditionally, investigators have extracted proteases from the dentin matrix for identification by Western blotting and evaluation of their functional activity by zymography (Tjäderhane et al, 1998;Martin-De Las Heras et al, 2000;Sulkala et al, 2004Sulkala et al, , 2007Mazzoni et al, 2007;Breschi et al, 2010). In those studies, it was assumed that soluble proteases functioned similarly to those that were matrix-bound, and that all proteases were equally extractable.…”