WNT signaling pathway genes expression profile in isolated hypodontia

The aim of this study is to investigate the potential role and the association of PAX9, WNT10a, and AXIN2 genes during the development of hypodontia. A total of 40 participants from both genders were divided equally into two groups. The study group consisted of healthy unrelated individuals with isolated hypodontia and the control group consisted of unrelated healthy individuals with full dentition. The mean age for the study group was 17 ± 7 and it was 16.5 ± 6 for the control group. RNA was isolated from saliva samples, and cDNA was synthesized accordingly. PAX9, WNT10a, AXIN2, and GAPDH primers were added to the mastermix and QPCR was performed. Gene expression was calculated according to the 2−ΔΔCt method as the expression of our target genes was normalized to the reference gene. Our results showed a significant lower expression of PAX9 in the study group p = 0.018. Whilst WNT10a was significantly up-regulated in the study group p = 0.005, AXIN2 showed no statistical significance between groups p = 0.69. Our results indicate the potential role of the overexpression of WNT10a in the development of hypodontia.