Proliferation and migration of rat incisor mesenchymal cells.

Sixty female Wistar rats were injected with tritiated thymidine and killed at intervals between 1 hr and 72 hr after injection. Autoradiographs of paraffin and Vestopal W embedded sagittal sections of the maxillary incisors were prepared. The distribution of labeled cells after 1 hr revealed the basal pulp cells and the preodontoblasts as proliferative cells. The growth rate of the incisor and the migration of the basal pulp cells were established from the position of labeled cells at 72 hr observation time. The number and localization of labeled and unlabeled mitoses were registered in order to determine the duration of the generation cycle of the proliferative cells. The identical cell generation time of preodontoblasts and basal pulp cells and the migration pattern of the latter indicate that the preodontoblasts are renewed by preodontoblast multiplication and not by migration of basal pulp cells.