Fig. 6.

Hypothetical mode of action of Nogo-A in the dental epithelium. Nogo-A can modulate the relative nuclear /cytoplasmic localisation of classes of transcription factors, allowing the timely differentiation of dental epithelial cells into ameloblasts. Deletion of Nogo-A results in aberrant nuclear/cytoplasmic localisation of proteins involved in gene expression regulation, which in turn results in massive alterations in gene expression. As a result, dental epithelial cells overexpress genes driving ameloblast differentiation and downregulate, among others, genes encoding for proteins mediating cell adhesion. This, in turn, leads to the production of defective enamel