Quantification of Microstructures in Mice Alveolar Bone using Micro-computed tomography (microCT)

ABSTRACT

Periodontal inflammation increases the risk of tooth loss, particularly in cases where there is an associated loss of alveolar bone and periodontal ligament (PDL). Histological and morphometric evaluation of periodontal inflammation is difficult. Especially, the lengths of the periodontal ligament and interdental alveolar bone space have not been quantified. A quantitative imaging procedure applicable to an animal model would be an important clinical study. The purpose of this study was to quantify the loss of alveolar bone and periodontal ligament by evaluation with micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Another purpose was to investigate differences in infections with systemic E. coli LPS and TNF-alpha on E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in loss of alveolar bone and periodontal ligament model on mice. This study showed that linear measurements of alveolar bone loss were represented with an increasing trend of the periodontal ligament length and interdental alveolar process space. The effects of systemic E. coli LPS and TNF-alpha on an E. coli LPS-induced periodontitis mice model were investigated in this research. Loss of periodontal ligament and alveolar bone were evaluated by micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and calculated by the two- and three dimensional microstructure morphometric parameters. Also, there was a significantly increasing trend of the interdental alveolar process space in E. coli LPS and TNF-alpha on E. coli LPS compared to PBS. And E. coli LPS and TNF-alpha on E. coli LPS had a slightly increasing trend of the periodontal ligament length. The increasing trend of TNF-alpha on the LPS-induced mice model in this experiment supports the previous studies on the contribution of periodontal diseases in the pathogenesis of systemic diseases. Also, our findings offer a unique model for the study of the role of LPS-induced TNF-alpha in systemic and chronic local inflammatory processes and inflammatory diseases. In this study, we performed rapidly quantification of the periodontal inflammatory processes and periodontal bone loss using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) in mice.