Experimental Studies in Vivo on the Permeability of Enamel With Particular Regard to the Effect of Sugar Solutions

Abstract

It has been shown that tetanus toxin is capable of penetrating the enamel of dog''s teeth in amts. sufficiently large to be detected by biologic test only when mixed with a glucose soln. Expts. were performed on dogs to investigate (a) the relation between glucose concn. and toxin penetration, (b) the influence of fructose upon the toxin penetration. The canine teeth were exposed (a) to tetanus toxin and glucose of different concns. on the left and right side, (b) to toxin-fructose on one side and toxin-glucose on the other side. Time of action of the toxin-sugar mixture was 2-45 hrs. After the dogs were sacrificed, the pulp tissue of the exposed teeth was ground in mortars with saline. Pulp suspensions were injected in mice of which half were first immunized with tetanus antitoxin. If the nonimmunized mice died or developed symptoms of tetanus, and the serum protected were symptom free, it was considered as evidence of penetration of the toxin through the dental hard tissues. It was thus established that there is definite relation between glucose concn. and toxin penetration, and that fructose will increase the penetration of tetanus toxin to a higher degree than glucose.