Effect of plasma on composition of human enamel and cementum pellicle.

Slabs of human enamel and cementum were incubated with plasma alone or with various mixtures of plasma and saliva. Proteins and glycoproteins that adsorbed to the surface of the slabs in 0 to 60 min were labeled by lactoperoxidase-catalyzed 125I-iodination and by mild periodate oxidation followed by NaB3H4 reduction. The labeled components were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and visualized by autoradiography or fluorography. From plasma alone, a 58 and a 66 kDa protein (probably albumin) were adsorbed to the enamel surface in relatively equal amounts, but no 125I-labeled components were detected on the cementum surface in the absence of saliva. Adding 10% saliva to the incubation mixture promoted the adsorption of the 58 and 66 kDa components to cementum. In addition, another set of proteins, including components of 44, 47, 29, and 25 kDa, was adsorbed to both cementum and enamel in the presence of saliva. These six proteins were the major 125I-labeled species in all of the pellicles formed from mixtures of plasma and saliva. The electrophoretic mobility of the major 120 and 140 kDa 3H-labeled sialoglycoproteins adsorbed to both cementum and enamel was similar to that of the low-molecular-weight mucin of submandibular/sublingual saliva.

External radiolabelling of components of pellicle on human enamel and cementum.

Enamel and cementum pellicles form by different adsorption of salivary and serum components to the tooth surface. The authors compared the constituents of surface pellicle formed on human enamel and cementum under three conditions: (1) natural pellicle, present on extracted teeth, which was formed by prolonged exposure to human salivary and serum components in vivo; (2) short-term in-vivo pellicle, formed by exposing enamel and cementum slabs to the oral environment for 0-60 min; (3) in-vivo pellicle, formed by incubating enamel and cementum slabs in a 1:1 mixture of parotid and submandibular/sublingual saliva for 0-60 min. Pellicle composition was characterized by external radiolabelling techniques specific for exposed carbohydrate (sialic acid and galactose) and amino-acid (tyrosine) residues. There were differences between cementum and enamel in the electrophoretic profiles of natural-pellicle components; notably, a major 180 kda 3H-labelled sialoglycoprotein, unique to the cementum pellicle, had the same electrophoretic mobility as the low-molecular-weight mucin from human submandibular/sublingual saliva. After alkaline-borohydride treatment, 3H-labelled natural-pellicle oligosaccharides chromatographed in the di- to tetrasaccharide region of a Bio-Gel P-2 column. The most prominently labelled components of short-term enamel and cementum pellicles in vivo and in vitro had the same electrophoretic mobility as the low-molecular-weight salivary mucin. The pellicle components formed in vitro, unlike those formed for the same period of time in vivo, were rapidly desorbed from the cementum, but not from the enamel surface. We conclude that: (1) external labelling techniques are useful for obtaining a profile of pellicle components; (2) submandibular/salivary mucins are major constituents of salivary pellicles on tooth surfaces; (3) glycoproteins that carry low-molecular-weight, sialic-acid-containing saccharides are important determinants of pellicle surface properties [corrected].

Plasticity in the 904-day-old male rat cerebral cortex.

Ten pairs of male Long-Evans rats living in nonenriched environments (3 rats per small cage) were transferred to either enriched environments (10 rats per large cage plus "toys") or nonenriched environments (2 rats per small cage) at 766 days of age. One hundred and thirty-eight days later, at 904 days of age, the cerebral cortical thickness from these animals was measured on projected, 10-micron, thionine-stained, transverse sections. Although the thickness in the enriched rats was greater than in the nonenriched rats in all sections through the frontal, parietal, and occipital cortices, the 4 to 10% differences were statistically significantly different in only the frontal and occipital cortices. Right greater than left cortical thickness differences were not statistically significant in either the enriched or the nonenriched animals by 904 days of age. Neuron and glial counts were made on enlarged photographs of area 18 in the occipital cortex on 6-micron-thick, luxol fast blue-stained sections. No significant differences in cell counts were noted between the enriched and nonenriched animals. No significant differences in neuronal counts were found among 108-, 650- (from previous experiments), and the 904-day-old nonenriched rats. The notable findings were the plasticity of the extremely old, enriched rats' occipital cortex and the lack of the loss of neurons in cerebral cortical area 18, whether or not the environments were enriched. These results showed that the cerebral cortex remained structurally plastic throughout the lifetime of the organism.