Morphological analysis of dentine formation in young rat molars during the recovery phase with calcium alone or combined with xylitol following a low-calcium dietary regimen.

The effects of dietary calcium deficiency and subsequent replenishment of the diet with calcium alone or with xylitol were studied. Thirty 3-week-old Wistar rats were labelled with an i.p. tetracycline injection. Twenty rats were fed a diet with 0.026% calcium (Ca-deficient); 10 received a 0.5% Ca diet (controls). After 3 weeks the tetracycline labelling was repeated. Replenishment of the diet was introduced for Ca-deficient rats, and 10 received additional 5% xylitol in the diet. After 4 weeks the labelling was repeated and the animals were decapitated. Dentine formation was measured by the tetracycline stripes in the lower first and second molars. Calcium deficiency during the first 3 weeks reduced dentine formation. In the control and xylitol groups, a much smaller amount of dentine was formed during the recovery period. With Ca alone, dentine formation was faster than in the controls or Ca-xylitol group and did not differ from the Ca-deficient period. These results indicate that in rat molars the odontoblasts can accelerate the rate of dentine formation when calcium is restored to the diet, at least during primary dentinogenesis. This effect was not seen when 5% xylitol was added to the replenishment diet.