Probing Bone Morphogenetic Protein function in Cranial Neural Crest cells.

口面部是最复杂的区域。它有各种各样的形状，是几个高度专业化的结构的所在地。其发育的中心是颅神经脊细胞(Cnc)。在胚胎发育过程中，数控细胞从神经板边缘迁移到颧弓，从那里形成面部隆起和不同的组织。Cnc细胞是一种多能干细胞，可分化为骨骼、软骨、神经、牙齿、神经胶质细胞、黑素细胞和面部结缔组织。尽管只有少数细胞外信号网络，如Sonic hedgehog(Shh)、骨形态发生蛋白(BMP)、成纤维细胞生长因子(成纤维细胞生长因子)和Wnt/？-catenin信号通路的重要性已经确定，但控制其迁移、分化和增殖的信号仍然只有部分被了解。这些途径在发育过程中被反复使用，因此它们的信号活动的地点、时间和持续时间都很重要。

The orofacial region is most complex. It comes in a wide variety of shapes and is home to several highly specialized structures. Central to its development are cranial neural crest cells (CNC). During embryonic development CNC cells migrate from the neural plate border to the branchial arches from which the facial prominences and different tissues are formed. CNC cells are multipotent stem cells that give rise to bone, cartilage, nerves, teeth, glial cells, melanocytes, and connective tissue of the face. The signals controlling their migration, differentiation, and proliferation are still only partly understood, though the importance of only a handful of extracellular signalling networks, such as Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Bone Morphogenetic Protein (Bmp), Fibroblast Growth Factor (Fgf), and Wnt/ß-catenin signalling, is well established. These pathways are used in a reiterated fashion during development, and thus place, time, and duration of their signalling activity are all important.