Splice of life: toward understanding genetic determinants of oral diseases

From the chromosome to DNA: Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and its clinical application

Understanding how chromosomal alterations contribute to acquired and inherited human disease requires the ability to manage the enormous physical and informational complexity of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) packaged within. Important concepts and techniques involved in the analysis of DNA include restriction enzymes, Southern blotting, and restriction fragment length polymorphism/linkage analysis. These techniques have been essential in the understanding and diagnosis of several syndromes associated with the head and neck. The purpose of this article is to introduce DNA structure, describe some techniques fundamental to DNA analysis, and provide a brief overview of the clinical applications of this technology with respect to dentinogenesis imperfecta and oral field cancerization.

And the next 50 years? The future of recombinant DNA technology in oral medicine

As we celebrate this spectacular 50th anniversary, fluoridation continues to be the most effective public health strategy to reduce the disease burden of dental caries. Curiously, while H. Trendley Dean and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health were investigating the effects of fluoride on tooth enamel in the mid-1930s, two young boys, one in London and the other in Chicago, were growing up to become the catalysts for another "biological revolution." These two very talented individuals, James Watson and Francis Crick, would later meet by accident at Cambridge and produce their seminal discovery published in April 1953 as a letter in Nature, a one-page article provoking an international scientific adventure to understand living organisms in terms of the structure and function of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a universal genetic code and a rationale for the applications of recombinant DNA technology (rDNA) in fields as diverse as agriculture, energy, industry, and health. As we now reflect upon the triumphs from fluoridation and ponder the next 50 years and the complexities of craniofacial, oral, and dental diseases, it becomes increasingly evident that recombinant DNA technology coupled with health promotion, disease prevention, and public education offers the promise for remarkable advances in prevention, diagnosis, and therapeutics in oral medicine.