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Histological changes in experimental periodontal disease in gnotobiotic rats and conventional hamsters
Author(s) -
Irving J. T.,
Socransky S. S.,
Heeley J. D.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
journal of periodontal research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.31
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1600-0765
pISSN - 0022-3484
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0765.1974.tb00656.x
Subject(s) - weanling , dental alveolus , actinomyces naeslundii , bone resorption , acid phosphatase , actinomyces , resorption , streptococcus mutans , medicine , pathology , biology , dentistry , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , enzyme
Seventy‐six weanling gnotobiotic rats of the Sprague‐Dawley strain were monoinfected in groups with Actlnomyces naeslundii, Actinomyces viscosus or Streptococcus mutans. The animals were killed at intervals up to 84 days and the maxillae and mandibles examined histologically. Periodontal disease, as evidenced by the presence of plaque, migration of the epithelial attachment and regression of the alveolar bone was sometimes evident after 28 days and in all cases extreme by 84 days. No organisms were seen in the gingiva and inflammatory changes were slight. Periodontal disease was most marked between the first and second maxillary molars, the mandibular gingiva, apart from the presence of plaque, being normal over the experimental period. Bone loss was gauged by labelling the bone with 3 H proline, and osteoclasts were detected by the acid phosphatase technique. In another experiment, 44 conventional weanling cream hamsters were superinfected with A. naeslundii . Periodontal disease developed more slowly than in the gnotobiotic rats, usually taking about 160 days to be severe. In both experiments the pathological changes were similar. The gnotobiotic rats developed periodontal disease over the same time sequence with all three organisms. Bone loss was not accompanied by the presence of osteoclasts and seemed, in this model, to be more due to a gradual cessation of bone formation than to active resorption. If in addition bone resorption did occur, it was brought about by a mechanism at present undescribed.