Figure 1.

Bmi1 regulates development and redox balance of the teeth and mandibles. A: Radiographs of the mandibles from 5-week-old wild-type (WT) and Bmi1^-/- mice. B: Representative micrographs of decalcified paraffin-embedded sections through the first molars from 5-week-old wild-type and Bmi1^-/- mice stained with serious red for total collagen as described in Materials and Methods. Scale bars represent 400 μm. C: Quantitative RT-PCR expression analysis of gene products involved in redox homeostasis in either WT or Bmi1^-/- teeth and mandibles. D: Quantitative RT-PCR expression analysis of antioxidative enzymes in WT and Bmi1^-/- teeth and mandibles. Results are normalized to Gapdh expression. Each value is the mean ± s.e.m. of determinations in five animals of each group. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001 relative to the wild-type mice.