Quantitative analysis of the core 2D arrangement and distribution of enamel rods in cross-sections of mandibular mouse incisors.

Charles E Smith,James P Simmer,Yuanyuan Hu,Jan C‐C Hu

doi:10.1111/joa.12912

Charles E Smith, James P Simmer + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12912

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Abstract

Considerable descriptive information about the overall organization of mouse mandibular incisor enamel is available but almost nothing is known about the quantitative characteristics of enamel rod arrangement and distribution in these teeth. This has important implications concerning cell movement during the secretory stage because each ameloblast makes one enamel rod. Knowing how many enamel rods are cut open in a cross‐section of the enamel layer could provide insights into understanding the dynamics of how groups of ameloblasts form the enamel layer. In this study, cross‐sections of fully mineralized enamel were cut on 24 mandibular mouse incisors, polished and etched, and imaged by scanning electron microscopy in backscatter mode. Montaged maps of the entire enamel layer were made at high magnification and the enamel rod profiles in each map were color‐coded based upon rod category. Quantitative analyses of each color layer in the maps were then performed using standard routines available in imagej. The data indicated that that there were on average 7233 ± 575 enamel rod profiles per cross‐section in mandibular incisors of 7‐week‐old mice, with 70% located in the inner enamel layer, 27% located in the outer enamel layer, and 3% positioned near the mesial and lateral cementoenamel junctions. All enamel rod profiles showed progressive increases in tilt angles, some very large in magnitude, from the lateral to mesial sides of the enamel layer, whereas only minor variations in tilt angle were found relative to enamel thickness at given locations across the enamel layer. The decussation angle between alternating rows of rod profiles within the inner enamel layer was fairly constant from the lateral to central labial sides of the enamel layer, but it increased dramatically in the mesial region of the enamel layer. The packing density of all rod profiles decreased from lateral to central labial regions of the enamel layer and then in progressing mesially, decreased slightly (inner enamel, mesial tilt), increased slightly (outer enamel layer) or almost doubled in magnitude (inner enamel, lateral tilt). It was concluded that these variations in rod tilt angle and packing densities are adaptations that allow the tooth to maintain a sharp incisal edge and shovel‐shape as renewing segments formed by around 7200 ameloblasts are brought onto the occluding surface of the tooth by continuous renewal.

Highlights

For over half a century, the continuously erupting incisors of rats and mice have served as a very useful model system for characterizing major cellular, structural, functional, and chemical events that are crucial to forming fully mineralizedCore arrangement of enamel rods in mandibular mouse incisors, C
The two-dimensional (2D) organization of rod and interrod enamel in rat and mouse incisor enamel has been described in detail by several researchers (Warshawsky, 1971; Risnes, 1979; Moinichen et al 1996) and this classic organization is clearly discernible in medium resolution backscatter scanning electron microscopic images (BEI; Fig. 1)
The innermost initial layer contains only a thin coat of inter-rod-type enamel which ameloblasts create at the start of amelogenesis and an inner enamel layer contains a long portion of rods angled incisally and arranged in several sequential alternating sheets of rods traveling from near the dentoenamel junction (DEJ) outward in either a mesial or a lateral direction toward the surface along with associated inter-rod enamel

Summary

Introduction

For over half a century, the continuously erupting incisors of rats and mice have served as a very useful model system for characterizing major cellular, structural, functional, and chemical events that are crucial to forming fully mineralizedCore arrangement of enamel rods in mandibular mouse incisors, C. Each sheet is angled in alternating mesial and lateral directions (decussating) and in the case of current living mice and rats tilted forward within the eruptive plane (angled toward incisal tip of tooth; Warshawsky & Smith, 1971; Von Koenigswald, 1985; Moinichen et al 1996; Martin, 1999; Cox, 2013; Kuang-Hsien Hu et al 2014) This is opposed to the more common situation as seen for example in mouse molars where groups of ameloblast form widely divergent enamel rod patterns at different sites across the crown surface, some of which show decussating arrangements (Boyde, 1989; Lyngstadaas et al 1998; Von Koenigswald, 2004). This subtle bioengineering modification of forming incisally tilted sheets of enamel rods having alternated sideto-side angulations (laminated) achieves two clear purposes: (1) it provides a partial fracture plane along the outer enamel portions of the enamel rods that keeps the incisal tip edges sharp for gnawing and (2) it provides considerable abrasion and especially fracture resistance across the sheeted inner enamel portions and radially oriented outer enamel portions as the enamel layer is worn away by attrition at the incisal edges (Warshawsky & Smith, 1971; Von Koenigswald, 1985; Martin, 1999; Vieytes et al 2007; Habelitz, 2015; Yilmaz et al 2015)

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