Effects of dentin phosphophoryn on precipitation of calcium phosphate in gel in vitro.

In vitro precipitation of calcium phosphate was carried out using a one-dimensional double diffusion system in agar gel. Bovine dentin phosphophoryn enhanced the sharpness of the precipitation bands, although it reduced the total amount of the precipitates. Dephosphorylated phosphophoryn had no effect on the pattern of precipitates. Therefore, phosphophoryn is thought to raise the local density of nucleation in spite of its inhibitory activity on apatite formation.