Isolation of granule proteins from cells of the dental follicle and stellate reticulum of rat mandibular molars.

The presence of a dental follicle is required for eruption of teeth of limited eruption but it is uncertain if any molecules indigenous to the follicle regulate this eruption. However, electron-dense granules of unknown composition and function are present in the fibroblasts of the dental follicle of rat molars, as well as the adjacent stellate reticulum, before and during tooth eruption. Here the granules have been isolated; two proteins, of 167 and 200 kDa, have been determined by biochemical and immunological methods to be major components of the granules.