THE EFFECT OF VITAMIN E DEFICIENCY ON THE RAT INCISOR

¹ Departments of Dental Histology, University of Illinois and the Royal Dental College, Denmark, and Medicinalco, Ltd., Copenhagen

The present study is based on the gross anatomic and histologic investigation of the upper incisors of 185 rats kept on four different diets all deficient in vitamin E for 33 to 425 days. Rats fed on three of these diets showed lack of pigmentation of the upper incisors to a different degree.

The rats receiving a fat-free but vitamin E-deficient diet showed no changes in the pigmentation of the upper incisors and only occasionally changes in the lower incisors. Addition of tocopherol to the diet protected the animals from any symptoms of vitamin E deficiency.

The histologic changes in the enamel organ were the following: (1) Damage of the capillary walls in the papillary layer, (2) development of an edema in the papillary layer, (3) folding of the ameloblasts into the adjacent edematous connective tissue and formation of cysts, and (4) change in the timing of atrophy of papillary layer and ameloblasts.