Lymphatic vessels in inflamed human dental pulp.

Investigation has been performed on both the light and electron microscopic characteristics of the lymphatic vessels present in the dental pulp of human teeth which have been affected by serious carious lesions. These conditions provoke a severe inflammatory response resulting in structural and functional modifications of the tissue; increase of the tissue pressure is followed by the need for a more intensive lymphatic drainage. In the inflamed pulps, dilated lymphatic vessels with distended walls and "open junctions" between endothelial cells are detectable. On the other hand they lack certain endothelial structures which characterize the morphology of these vessels under normal conditions. In the pulpal regions affected by fibrotic proliferation shrunken vessels with irregular profiles are present. From these observations it is possible to obtain other information on the mechanisms regulating the lymphatic drainage in different structural and functional conditions of the interstitium.