Zeygerson T, Smith P, Haydenblit R
Laboratory of BioAnthropology and Ancient DNA, The Hebrew University-Hadassah, School of Dental Medicine, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel.
Arch Oral Biol. 2000 Dec;45(12):1091-9. doi: 10.1016/s0003-9969(00)00063-7.
Enamel prism-packing patterns reflect the past history of ameloblasts, providing information about growth patterns in tooth development. Here, the area and density of enamel prisms on the cuspal surface of molar teeth were measured to examine if the onset and rate of enamel apposition differ according to stage of development and/or cusp type. Scanning electron-microscopic images were taken from the mesiobuccal and distal cusp tips of 30 mandibular first permanent molars at different stages of development recovered from archaeological sites in Israel dating to the past 10000 years. Selected enamel microstructural characters were measured for each cusp. The mean area of prisms on the mesiobuccal (MB) cusp was significantly larger than that of the distal (D) cusp at all stages of development and the differences in prism area between cusps were significant for each stage of development. Prism density was significantly smaller on the MB cusp than the D cusp at all stages of development but no significant differences were found between early and later stages in each cusp. This was interpreted as indicating that enamel formation in the MB cusp was almost complete, even in the earliest tooth germs studied, whereas in the D cusp it was less advanced. The differences between MB and D cusps are proposed to result from asynchrony of enamel formation between the different cusps of molar teeth in recent populations. The method provides a non-destructive approach to the study of growth patterns in teeth and provides baseline data for comparison with fossil teeth.
釉柱排列模式反映了成釉细胞的过往历史，为牙齿发育中的生长模式提供信息。在此，测量了磨牙牙尖表面釉柱的面积和密度，以检查釉质沉积的起始和速率是否因发育阶段和/或牙尖类型而异。从以色列可追溯到过去一万年的考古遗址中回收的30颗下颌第一恒磨牙在不同发育阶段的近中颊尖和远中尖处拍摄扫描电子显微镜图像。对每个牙尖测量选定的釉质微观结构特征。在所有发育阶段，近中颊（MB）尖上的釉柱平均面积均显著大于远中（D）尖，并且在每个发育阶段，牙尖之间的釉柱面积差异均显著。在所有发育阶段，MB尖上的釉柱密度均显著小于D尖，但每个牙尖的早期和晚期之间未发现显著差异。这被解释为表明即使在研究的最早牙胚中，MB尖的釉质形成也几乎完成，而D尖的釉质形成则较落后。MB尖和D尖之间的差异被认为是由于现代人群中磨牙不同牙尖之间釉质形成的不同步所致。该方法为研究牙齿生长模式提供了一种非破坏性方法，并为与化石牙齿进行比较提供了基线数据。
