The occurrence of non-syndromic still remains poorly understood, but in recent years some cases have been reported where mutations or polymorphisms of PAX9 and MSX1 had been associated with non-syndromic oligodontia.
Recently, several genes have been reported with mutations or variants that underlie a number of syndromic and non-syndromic forms of oligodontia including MSX1, PAX9, AXIN2, EDA and WNT10A.
DNA sequencing of the MSX1 gene revealed two mutations in the two patients with oligodontia: a heterozygotic silent mutation, c.348C>T (P.Gly116=), in exon 1 and a homozygotic deletion of 11 nucleotides (c.469+56delins GCCGGGTGGGG) in the intron.
The strategy in this study was to use the variation in the number of teeth in the affected individuals of three mutant families with hypodontia, to determine the relative influence (relative molecular morphogenetic field) of MSX 1 and PAX 9 genes on the dental field.
The absence of a mutation in exons 1 and 2 of MSX1 suggested that allelic mutations in the coding region of MSX1 are not associated with this phenotypically distinct form of oligodontia.
Our results demonstrate for the first time that MSX1 might play a substantial role in familial cases of hypodontia involving only second premolars and third molars.
The pairwise lod-scores regarding the intragenic microsatellites in the MSX1 and MSX2 genes at a recombination fraction of 0.0 were -3.1 and -3.0, respectively, thus excluding these genes as causative loci for hypodontia in these families.
We identified two novel MSX1 variants with an amino acid substitution within the homeodomain; Thr174Ile (T174I) from a sporadic hypodontia case and Leu205Arg (L205R) from a familial oligodontia case.
Previous studies have indicated that mutations in the homeobox gene MSX1, paired domain transcription factor PAX9, and EDA are associated with non-syndromic oligodontia.
In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that the variant genotype and variant T allele of the MSX1rs8670 SNP increased the risk of hypodontia in the studied population.
Coupling these new clinical findings with results from recent molecular studies, we suggest that transcription factors such as MSX1 and PAX9, which have been associated with agenesis of molars, might be involved in the genetic control of Mn.I2.C transposition and PDC, tooth malpositions connected here with the specific expression of posterior-field (M3) hypodontia.
In conclusion, these meta-analysis results demonstrated that polymorphisms in the rs1095 region of the MSX1 gene may influence the transcriptional activity of this gene and are associated with hypodontia in humans.
The Msx1-/Msx1- phenotype is similar to human cleft palate, and provides a genetic model for cleft palate and oligodontia in which the defective gene is known.
The most distinguishing feature of MSX1-associated oligodontia is the frequent (75%) absence of maxillary first bicuspids, while the most distinguishing feature of PAX9-associated oligodontia is the frequent (> 80%) absence of the maxillary and mandibular second molars.
Our results for the first time demonstrates that mutations in MSX1 gene might play an important role in hypodontia cases involving pre-molars and is a risk factor for this ethnic population mainly of Arabs and is first report linking these mutations with tooth agenesis.
The objective of the present study was to search for Msh homeobox 1 (MSX1), paired box gene 9 (PAX9), ectodysplasin‑A (EDA) and axis inhibition protein 2 (AXIN2) variants in a family with isolated oligodontia and analyse the pathogenesis of mutations that result in oligodontia phenotypes.