title: In vitro quantitative light-induced fluorescence to measure changes in enamel mineralization.
abstract: A sensitive, quantitative method for investigating changes in enamel mineralization of specimens subjected to in vitro or in situ experimentation is presented. The fluorescence-detecting instrument integrates a Xenon arc light source and an object positioning stage, which makes it particularly suitable for the nondestructive assessment of demineralized or remineralized enamel. We demonstrate the ability of in vitro quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) to quantify changes in mineralization of bovine enamel discs that had been exposed in vitro to a demineralizing gel (n=36) or biofilm-mediated demineralization challenges (n=10), or were carried in situ by three volunteers during a 10-day experiment (n=12). Further experiments show the technique's value for monitoring the extent of remineralization in 36 specimens exposed in vitro to oral multispecies biofilms and document the repeatability of in vitro QLF measurements (n=10) under standardized assay conditions. The validity of the method is illustrated by comparison with transversal microradiography (TMR), the invasive current gold standard for assessing experimental changes in enamel mineralization. Ten discs with 22 measurement areas for comparison demonstrated a positive correlation between TMR and QLF (r=0.82). Filling a technological gap, this QLF system is a promising tool to assay in vitro nondestructively localized changes in mineralization of enamel specimens.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Oral Biology, Section for Oral Microbiology and General Immunology, University of Zürich, Plattenstrasse 11, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland. gmuer@zzmk.unizh.ch
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gmür
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giertsen
authors.forename: Monique H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: van der Veen
authors.forename: Elbert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Josselin de Jong
authors.forename: Jacob M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: ten Cate
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guggenheim
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D018441:Biofilms; D002417:Cattle; D003732:Dental Caries Activity Tests; D003743:Dental Enamel / Q000737:chemistry*; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000382:microbiology; D003890:Desiccation; D005453:Fluorescence; D005470:Fluorometry; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008027:Light; D008852:Microradiography; D023861:Photography, Dental; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D017001:Tooth Demineralization / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014089:Tooth Remineralization; D014978:Xenon
chemical_list: D014978:Xenon