| Seq #48 | Thursday, March 22, 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Ernest N. Morial Convention Center 293, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genetic and Transcriptional Control of Osteoblast Differentiation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sponsored by: Craniofacial Biology, Mineralized Tissue, Pulp Biology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: The developmental program that commits a mesenchymal stem cell to the osteoblast lineage employs transcriptional regulators to enable the assembly of a macromolecular complex with tissue specificity and competence for integration of multiple signaling. The temporal and spatial organization of transcriptional regulatory machinery provides microenvironments within the nucleus where threshold concentrations of cognate factors facilitate functional interactions with target genes. Conventional biochemical, molecular, and in vivo genetic approaches, together with high throughput genomic and proteomic analysis are rapidly expanding our database of regulatory macromolecules and signaling pathways that are requisite for control of genes that govern proliferation and differentiation of osteoblast and odontoblasts. This symposium will present an overview of the concept of tissue-specific transcriptional control essential for development of the bone cell phenotype. Many gene products are known to promote osteoblast growth, differentiation and increase bone formation, but the transcription factor Runx2 and members of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family have been shown to be the earlier determinant for osteogenesis. Runx2 provides a new paradigm for transcriptional control by functioning as a principal scaffolding protein in nuclear microenvironments to control gene expression in response to developmental and physiologic signals. Runx2 serves as a hub for the coordination of activities essential for the expansion and differentiation of osteogenic lineage cells through the formation of highly organized and dynamic co-regulatory protein complexes. A wide spectrum of Runx2 regulatory activities that provides a combinatorial control of transcription operative within the three dimensional context of bone cells and the current challenge in identification of the target genes to illicit correct developmental response will be discussed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairperson: A. JAVED | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Back to the IADR/AADR/CADR 85th General Session and Exhibition (March 21-24, 2007)