Corals: Their Use in Dental Research

¹ Institute for Dental Science, University of Texas Dental Branch, Houston, Texas

The attention of the dental researcher is drawn to the possibilities of utilizing certain soft corals to investigate mechanisms of calcification. These members of the order Gorgonacea, namely Pseudoplexaura crucis, Eunicea calyculata, and Gorgonia ventalina, were collected in the Caribbean Sea around Mata de la Gata, off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The gross description, histology, and simple histochemistry of these corals was presented. They consisted of a central axial rod surrounded by a coenenchyme in which there were many epitheliumlined spaces, the solenia, as well as polyps. The axial rod consisted of a material arranged in definite lamellae called "gorgonin." It was Schiff-positive but non-metachromatic with toluidine blue and appeared to have been related to a collagen-type protein fiber.