• Applied Microscopy
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2006

The pregnant rats were given a drinking water administration of the sodium fluoride and normal saline for control animals. The sodium fluoride produced cellular changes of odontoblast with consistent response. Compare to control group, the odontoblasts that were administrated by sodium fluoride, showed significantly ultrastructural differences including large number of free ribosomes and swelled mitochondria in dose-dependent manner (300 ppm). From fine structural and morphological investigations of the changes in odontoblast, there were three distinctive structural changes: (1) destruction of the endoplasmic reticulum, (2) swelling of the mitochondria, and (3) severe cellular derangement of the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. From this consecutive structural change, we observed that sodium fluoride temporarily affects the cell organelles in odontoblasts (100, 200 ppm), suggesting it is important that optimal concentration of the sodium fluoride in developing fetus of the rat.