Structural alterations in proliferating, remodeling, and regressing tooth pulp arterioles.

In the continuously growing upper incisor of 100 g rats about 25 arterioles arise from an artery outside the tooth and pass through the apical foramen to run parallel to one another in the central part of the pulp, each supplying a well-defined sector of the migrating odontoblast layer. The arterioles pass through a cycle of proliferation, growth, remodeling, regression and decay, phase displaced in relation to each other. Proliferative and degenerative processes occur in the arteriole wall throughout the cycle, but vary considerably in intensity at different phases. Proliferation takes place by mitosis in the endothelium and the innermost smooth muscle cells. The degenerative process consists of reduction in size of smooth muscle cells by partial autodigestion and by cell death. When the odontoblasts reach the incisal extremity of the tooth, they die, and the associated regressed arteriole disappears. The system of pulpal arterioles has remarkable spatio-temporal features and each of its vessels appears to be in a state of sensitive structural equilibrium.