J Korean Assoc Oral Maxillofac Surg.  2000 Aug;26(4):363-368.

Mechanical and Histomorphologic Changes of the Rat Femur After Administration of Sodium Fluoride

• Lee SK
• Song KB
• Jang HJ

Abstract

The purposes of the study was to examine changes in thickness and strength of the rat femur after administration of sodium fluoride in the drinking water. 48 female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, and they were supplied with 0(control), 1, 5 and 50 ppm of fluoride in the drinking water ad libitum for 6 weeks. Rats were killed and both sides of femur were dissected. Bone strength was measured as the stress of failure of femur at the middle point and femoral neck with Instron. Histologic slides were prepared from the femur shaft with routine processing of fixing, demineralizing, embedding and HE staining. Thickness and area of cortical bone and medullary cavity were measured by using Camera Lucida and Image Analyzer. All the collected data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA, Duncanos multiple range test for post-hoc tests and ANCOVA using the SAS 6.12 package at the level of 0.05. Bone strength increased significantly in the animals given 1 and 5 ppm of fluoride in the water, as compared to the control group. There were significant decreases of stress at fracture in 50 ppmF group compared to the 1 and 5 ppmF groups. The similar trends of bone strength at the femoral neck fracture test, but there were no statistical significances. Cortical bone thickness and area of the femur increased in the 1 and 5 ppmF groups compared to the control. However, the thickness of 50 ppmF group also decreased significantly as compared to 1 and 5 ppmF groups. On the other hand, medullary thickness and area increased in all fluoride groups than control group. All of the findings presented support the conclusion that, low fluoride dosage used in water fluoridation could increase the bone strength and might have preventive effect on femur fracture.

Keyword

Sodium Fluoride; Rat Femur; Bone Strength; Histomorphologic Change

MeSH Terms

Animals
Drinking Water
Female
Femoral Neck Fractures
Femur Neck
Femur*
Fluoridation
Fluorides
Hand
Humans
Rats*
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Sodium Fluoride*
Sodium*
Water
Drinking Water
Fluorides
Sodium
Sodium Fluoride
Water