Abstract
The most mineralized tissue of the mammalian body is tooth enamel. Especially in species with thick enamel, three-dimensional (3D) tomography data has shown that the distribution of enamel varies across the occlusal surface of the tooth crown. Differences in enamel thickness among species and within the tooth crown have been used to examine taxonomic affiliations, life history, and functional properties of teeth. Before becoming fully mineralized, enamel matrix is secreted on the top of a dentine template, and it remains to be explored how matrix thickness is spatially regulated. To provide a predictive framework to examine enamel distribution, we introduce a computational model of enamel matrix secretion that maps the dentine topography to the enamel surface topography. Starting from empirical enamel-dentine junctions, enamel matrix deposition is modeled as a diffusion-limited free boundary problem. Using laboratory microCT and synchrotron tomographic data of pig molars that have markedly different dentine and enamel surface topographies, we show how diffusion-limited matrix deposition accounts for both the process of matrix secretion and the final enamel distribution. Simulations reveal how concave and convex dentine features have distinct effects on enamel surface, thereby explaining why the enamel surface is not a straightforward extrapolation of the dentine template. Human and orangutan molar simulations show that even subtle variation in dentine topography can be mapped to the enamel surface features. Mechanistic models of extracellular matrix deposition can be used to predict occlusal morphologies of teeth.
Highlights
Most mammalian species have their teeth covered by a layer of highly mineralized enamel
To explore which kind of mechanisms could underlie the complex patterns of enamel distribution, we present a computational model
We propose that the strength of the diffusion-limited process is a key factor in determining enamel distribution among mammalian species
Summary
Most mammalian species have their teeth covered by a layer of highly mineralized enamel. The thickness of the enamel layer relative to the tooth size ranges from thin to very thick These differences among species, and increasingly within the tooth crown, have been informative in studies focused on functional properties of teeth, taxonomy, and life history [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Even less is known about the regulation of enamel thickness variation within the tooth crown, which contrasts with the increasing availability of 3D tomography data on various species. To provide mechanistic insights into the regulation of enamel thickness, here we combine tomography data on enamel distribution with a computational approach and introduce a model to simulate enamel matrix secretion
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