[Growth of Wistar rats jaws following single dose of vincristine]

In the chemotherapy of malignant diseases the cytostatic Vincristine is often used. Since literature data showed the negative effects of Vincristine on young cells of the healthy developing tissue, only animals were used in experiment of Vincristine testing. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the growth of the rat's maxilla and mandible in relation to time intervals following a single dose of Vincristine. The experiment concerned 80 Wistar rats of both sexes. Experimental animals (46) were subcutaneously injected, in the neck wrinkle, a single dose of 0.1 mg/kg BW of Vincristine, on the 7th or 8th postnatal day. The control group consisted of 34 untreated animals. Both treated and untreated animals were sacrificed on the 24th, 42nd and 57th postnatal day, respectively, by decapitation. Following isolation and removal of soft tissue remnants jaws were radiographed using Siemens X-ray dental device. Morphometric measurements were performed with the following parametres: front and rear width and height of the maxillary arc, sagittal and vertical dimensions and coronal length of mandibular incisors. Values were statistically computed and elaborated by Student t-test. The significant level was 5% (p less than 0.05). The results showed that the mean values of the majority of parametres of both jaws were significantly lower in the group of treated animals compared to untreated group.