Differences in maturation of the jaw-opening reflex between rats that received early-and late-masticatory stimulation

The jaw-opening reflex (JOR) plays an important role in the regulation of jaw movement during mastication. Previous study showed that altered masticatory function during growth impedes JOR maturation and thus may affect masticatory performance in adults. However, no studies have compared the benefit of early and delayed correction in terms of functional development. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that early-stimulation of masticatory function during growth can promote JOR maturation better than late-stimulation during adulthood. Soon after weaning, 120 female Wistar rats were divided into two groups and fed either solid (control group) or liquid (experimental group) diets. The experimental group was further divided into early-, late-, and non-stimulation subgroups. Early- and late-stimulation groups were fed a solid diet instead of a liquid diet at 5- and 11-week-old, respectively, whereas non-stimulation group was fed only a liquid diet until the end of the experiment. At 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 weeks, JOR recordings were conducted in anaesthetised rats of all groups. Latency and peak-to-peak amplitude of the JOR were compared between the groups. From 7 to 13 weeks, early-stimulation group showed a JOR with short latency and high amplitude similar to that of control group. In contrast, late- and non-stimulation groups showed significantly longer latency and smaller amplitude of the JOR than in control group. We demonstrated that early masticatory stimulation within the critical period for programming mastication may have greater potential to restore JOR maturation to values close to those in normal adults.