Apoptosis of odontoclasts under physiological root resorption of human deciduous teeth

This study was designed to establish the apoptosis of odontoclasts during physiological root resorption of human deciduous teeth. Deciduous teeth were fixed, decalcified, and embedded in paraffin for immunohistochemical (IHC) observations and in Epon for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Apoptotic cells were identified by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick-end labeling (TUNEL), and then tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity was determined on the same sections. Epon-embedded specimens were sectioned serially into 0.5-microm semithin sections; some of these sections were re-embedded in Epon, sectioned into 0.1-microm ultrathin sections, and observed by TEM. IHC revealed that the nuclei of TRAP-positive odontoclasts on the dentine were generally TUNEL-negative. Around these odontoclasts, a few TRAP-positive structures were present together with TUNEL-positive structures, e.g., a TRAP-positive structure with one TUNEL-positive nucleus, a TRAP-positive structure with one TUNEL-positive nucleus plus one or two TUNEL-negative nuclei, or a TRAP-positive structure with no nucleus. By TEM, some odontoclasts showed nuclear fragments including compacted chromatin. The results suggest that, during apoptosis, odontoclasts fragment into variously sized cellular parts including three or fewer nuclei.