Vascularization of the enamel organ in developing molar teeth of rats--scanning electron microscope study of...

Vascularization of the enamel organ was demonstrated in the developing upper first molar teeth of rats from the 19-day embryo to 5 days after birth employing the vascular casting/scanning electron microscope method. Capillaries were first observed in the enamel organ at the 21-day embryo. By that time, with the beginning of differentiation of the inner enamel epithelium into ameloblasts, mesenchymal cells situated in close proximity to the inner enamel epithelium had begun to differentiate into odontoblasts, but deposition of organic substances had not commenced. The occurrence of blood capillaries before the nutritional supply through the dental papilla was interrupted by the deposition of dentin and enamel, may possibly be due to the high nutritional requirements of the ameloblasts following differentiation from the inner enamel epithelium. With the advance of dentin and enamel formation, many capillaries entered the enamel organ and finally formed a flattened vascular network next to the stratum intermedium. These findings suggest that the capillaries in the enamel organ should be regarded as a change which affords a rapid and sufficient supply of metabolic substances necessary for amelogenesis. The newly developed capillaries in the enamel organ grew first by sprouting and later by loop formation.