Fluoride-induced developmental changes in enamel and dentine of European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.) as a result of environmental pollution

Using macroscopic, microradiographic and scanning electron-microscopic methods, the effects of increased fluoride exposure on enamel and dentine formation were studied in fluorosed mandibular premolars and molars of roe deer from the heavily industrialized Ruhr area, Germany. Macroscopically, fluorosed teeth were characterized by opaque and stained enamel and in more severe cases also by enamel surface lesions, reduction or loss of enamel ridges on their occlusal surfaces and increased wear. Microradiographically, fluorosed enamel exhibited different degrees of subsurface hypomineralization, in part apparently indicating a fluoride effect during enamel maturation. In some specimens, a pronounced but varying enhancement of the pattern of Retzius lines was observed throughout the enamel, denoting strongly intermittent fluoride exposure during enamel matrix secretion. This variation in exposure was also reflected histologically in dentine, by bands of interglobular dentine and marked accentuation of incremental lines. Microradiography of sections through enamel surface hypoplastic lesions showed the enamel forming the bottom and partly also the walls of the lesions to be highly mineralized. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the outer enamel along the more pronounced hypoplastic lesions consisted of stacked, thin layers of ‘aprismatic’ enamel, indicating that the ameloblasts in these areas had lost the distal (rod-forming) regions of their Tomes' processes. These observations demonstrate that the origin of enamel hypoplasias in deer clearly differs from that in rodents, where fluoride induces the formation of subameloblastic cysts. The differences in the degree of fluorotic alteration between the teeth of a single tooth row could be related to the developmental sequence of the dentition in roe deer. The roe deer is thus considered to be a very sensitive and useful bioindicator of environmental pollution by fluorides.