Nasal obstruction promotes alveolar bone destruction in the juvenile rat model

Nasal obstruction leads to oral breathing and consequently hypoxia. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hypoxia on inflammatory response and the effect on alveolar bone development in a rat model in which mouth breathing was induced by nasal obstruction.

Unilateral nasal obstruction was performed by injecting a Merocel sponge into the nasal cavity of 8-week-old Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. After 3 and 6 weeks of nasal obstruction, rats were sacrificed, the organs were weighed, and the changes in mandibular bone quality were examined by micro-computed tomography (μ-CT). The stereomicroscope was used for the morphological analysis of alveolar bone loss in response to nasal obstruction. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemical staining were employed to examine inflammation and bone remodeling induced by hypoxia.

Nasal obstruction led to a delay in overall growth and organ development. The bone mineral density (BMD) and bone volume/total volume (BV/TV) of the mandible were reduced due to nasal obstruction, and the loss of the alveolar bone was confirmed morphologically. Our nasal obstruction method was observed to be successful in inducing hypoxia along with an increase in hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-α). Oral hypoxia induced by nasal obstruction increased inflammatory response, and increased expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand (RANKL) led to bone destruction.

This study demonstrated that nasal obstruction induced mouth breathing led to hypoxia in a rat model. Under hypoxic conditions, an increase in osteoclast differentiation induced by activation of the inflammatory pathway causes destructive changes in the alveolar bone.