Influence of differences in the hardness and calcium content of diets on the growth of craniofacial bone in rats

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of a soft diet and a low-calcium diet on the craniofacial growth and bone architectures of the maxilla and mandible. Materials and Methods: Male rats (n 5 20, 3 weeks old) were divided into four groups. Ten rats were given a normal-calcium diet, and the other rats were given a low-calcium diet. Each group was then divided into two subgroups, which were fed a hard or a soft diet. After 4 weeks, craniofacial growth and architecture in maxillary and mandibular bone were analyzed using cephalometry, micro-computed tomography, and histopathology. Results: The low-calcium diet had no effect on serum calcium levels. The low-calcium diet had the greatest effect on craniofacial bone growth, while the soft diet affected the growth of several bone sites that are attached to the masseter muscle. A low-calcium diet resulted in the deterioration of the connectivity of the trabeculae in the furcation region of the maxillary and mandibular first molar, while a soft diet resulted in the diffuse disappearance of trabeculae in the central part of the furcation regions. In the midpalatal suture, a low-calcium diet resulted in inhibition of cartilaginous ossification, although the midpalatal suture had a normal cartilaginous structure. A soft diet resulted in narrower cartilage cell layers in the midpalatal suture. Conclusions: We demonstrated that a low-calcium diet and a soft diet resulted in a deterioration of bone structures in both the maxilla and in the mandible; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects differed between diets. (Angle Orthod. 2015;85:969-979.)

Interplay among calcium diet content, PTH(1-34) treatment and balance of bone homeostases in rat model: the trabecular bone as keystone

“…Among all serum levels, it has to be noted that the mean values of Ca and P show similar values due to the good bone answer to both mineral and skeletal homeostases. Authors consider this aspect as a physiological compensatory mechanism to respond to the acute absence of calcium absorbed from diet, as also inferred by others [53][54][55]. The present results suggest that, to compensate for a decreased serum calcium concentration, the parathyroid hormone stimulated the excessive resorption of calcium from bone that, in turn, releases also phosphate into blood and, as consequence, serum phosphorus levels may increase.…”

Chronic Powder Diet After Weaning Induces Sleep, Behavioral, Neuroanatomical, and Neurophysiological Changes in Mice

“…Previous research using animals have verified that tooth loss or soft diets leads to changes in craniofacial morphology, increase in body weight, and impaired working and spatial memory. Many studies have shown that a soft diet caused smaller mandibular, maxillary, and cranial skeleton compared to a standard diet in rodents [ 16 – 20 ] and monkey [ 21 ], supporting the observations in epidemiological studies. Although soft diet-induced obesity is an inconsistent phenotype, several mechanisms related to mastication such as activation of satiety [ 22 , 23 ], postprandial thermogenesis [ 24 ], and blood glucose metabolism [ 25 ], are suggested to be involved in this phenotype.…”

A Novel Method to Detect 3D Mandibular Changes Related to Soft-Diet Feeding

“…The present micro-CT data provide highly accurate 3D imaging data, and 12,186 points on the triangulated mesh were fitted to the curved mandibular surface, which enabled the quantitative topographic assessment of the bony surface and reconstruction of the anatomical architecture images with high resolution. In most previous studies, the distance and/or the angle between the corresponding landmarks were measured after the 3D differences in the superimposed models were usually translated into 2D (Mavropoulos et al, 2004 ; Swain and Xue, 2009 ; Enomoto et al, 2010 ; Saito et al, 2011 ; Goto et al, 2015 ). In contrast, in our present approach, a computer-generated averaged mandible was superimposed to describe the morphological phenotypes in the mandibular shape, and then variations in the surface morphology were directly visualized and quantified using a 3D image with a map of points of significant difference.…”

“…Micro-CT generates reconstructed 3D models in voxels for qualitative 3D morphological observation, and then the bone surface voxel can be extracted and converted to coordinates for quantitative morphometric analysis (Swain and Xue, 2009 ). However, most previous studies using 3D micro-CT performed 2D observation on a reconstructed slice or measurement among the reference points placed on reconstructed models (Mavropoulos et al, 2004 ; Swain and Xue, 2009 ; Enomoto et al, 2010 ; Saito et al, 2011 ; Goto et al, 2015 ). While 3D observation using micro-CT provided more accurate data than previous 2D studies had, a conventional 3D analysis did not show any additional advantages for evaluating any possible deviations in the mandibular shape.…”