Depalle Baptiste, Karaaslan Hakan, Obtel Nicolas, Gil-Bona Ana, Teichmann Maren, Mascarin Gabrielle, Pugach-Gordon Megan, Bidlack Felicitas B
The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, United States.
Front Physiol. 2023 Feb 16;14:1099645. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1099645. eCollection 2023.
The teeth of humans and pigs are similar in size, shape, and enamel thickness. While the formation of human primary incisor crowns takes about 8 months, domestic pigs form their teeth within a much shorter time. Piglets are born after 115 days of gestation with some of their teeth erupted that must after weaning meet the mechanical demands of their omnivorous diet without failure. We asked whether this short mineralization time before tooth eruption is combined with a post-eruptive mineralization process, how fast this process occurs, and how much the enamel hardens after eruption. To address this question, we investigated the properties of porcine teeth at two, four, and sixteen weeks after birth (N = 3 animals per time point) through analyses of composition, microstructure, and microhardness. We collected data at three standardized horizontal planes across the tooth crown to determine the change of properties throughout the enamel thickness and in relation to soft tissue eruption. Our findings indicate that porcine teeth erupt hypomineralized compared to healthy human enamel and reach a hardness that is similar to healthy human enamel within less than 4 weeks.
人类和猪的牙齿在大小、形状和牙釉质厚度方面相似。人类乳牙冠的形成大约需要8个月，而家猪形成牙齿的时间要短得多。仔猪在妊娠115天后出生，部分牙齿已经萌出，断奶后这些牙齿必须毫无故障地满足其杂食性饮食的机械需求。我们想知道牙齿萌出前这种短暂的矿化时间是否与萌出后的矿化过程相结合，这个过程发生得有多快，以及牙齿萌出后牙釉质会硬化多少。为了解决这个问题，我们通过分析组成、微观结构和显微硬度，研究了出生后两周、四周和十六周的猪牙特性（每个时间点n = 3只动物）。我们在整个牙冠的三个标准化水平面上收集数据，以确定整个牙釉质厚度以及与软组织萌出相关的特性变化。我们的研究结果表明，与健康的人类牙釉质相比，猪牙萌出时矿化不足，并且在不到4周的时间内达到与健康人类牙釉质相似的硬度。
