Postnatal Dentofacial Changes Induced in Rats by Prenatal Riboflavin Deficiency

¹ Departments of Anatomy and Pediatrics, and Children's Hospital Research Foundation, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

Rats with mild facial anomalies produced by maternal riboflavin deficiency could be raised to maturity. Although the anomalies of the jaws were only subclinical at birth, the dentofacial deformities became manifest at the time of eruption of the incisor teeth. The anomalies of the incisors were so severe that survival was made possible only by periodical cutting of the teeth. There was a constant pattern of malocclusion. The dentofacial anomalies induced by prenatal riboflavin deficiency did not correct themselves to normal during 18 months of postnatal life, although the animals were fed an adequate diet. Young obtained from matings of these abnormal animals with normal rats of the same stock resulted in anatomically normal young.