I 



THE OXYTALAN CONNECTIVE TISSUE FIBER 

 IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



H. M. FULLMER 



National Institute of Dental Research, National Institutes of Health, 



Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, 



Education and Welfare, Bethesda 14, Maryland 



Oxytalan connective tissue fibers hâve recently been demonstrated to 

 be a normal constituent of periodontal membranes of man. Histochemical 

 évidence indicates that they differ from aU previously described con- 

 nective tissue fibers. They are stained with the peracetic acid-aldehyde 

 fuchsin-Halmi and the peracetic acid-orcein-Halmi methods. They resist 

 digestion with elastase unless they are pre-oxidized with peracetic acid. 

 They are believed to contain a protein and a mucopolysaccharide compo- 

 nent. The latter is digested by lysozyme, and by either j8-glucuronidase 

 or testicular hyaluronidase provided the fibers are pre-oxidized with 

 peracetic acid. Their présence and distribution in structures such as 

 periodontal membranes, ligaments, tendons and mucous connective 

 tissues as well as their composition as revealed by histochemical 

 methods would tend to suggest that they represent specially modified 

 or immature elastic-like tissues. 



During the course of embryonic development of the jaws in man, it 

 was noted that abundant mucopolysaccharide and well developed collagen 

 bundles were demonstrable before oxytalan fibers appeared. They appear 

 to develop from a mass of mucopolysaccharide between bundles of 

 collagen, and are first demonstrable in the oral mucosa of embryos at 

 approximately 6 months of âge. They develop in connective tissues 

 destined to become periodontal membrane as Hertwig's sheath prolifé- 

 râtes apically, and are inserted into the cementum as Hertwig's sheath 

 fragments. They apparently increase in size and number with functional 

 development. 



An inhérent capacity of periodontal connective tissue cells to produce 

 oxytalan fibers under pathological conditions was also discovered. 

 During the course of dental granuloma and radicular cyst formation, 

 old bone and connective tissues are destroyed and new tissue develops. 

 Oxytalan fibers clearly develop in this new repairative tissue in a manner 



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