SummaryThis study was designed to establish apoptosis of odontoclasts under physiological root resorption of human deciduous teeth. Deciduous teeth were fixed, decalcified, and embedded in paraffin for immunohistochemical (IHC) observations and in Epon for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Apoptotic cells were identified by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick end labeling (TUNEL), and then the tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity was determined on the same sections. Epon embedded specimens were sectioned serially into 0.5-µm semithin sections, and some of the sections were re-embedded into Epon, sectioned into 0.1-µm ultrathin sections, and then observed by TEM. By IHC, the nuclei of TRAP-positive odontoclasts on the dentine were generally TUNEL-negative. Around these odontoclasts, there were a few TRAP-positive structures with TUNEL-positive structures: A TRAP-positive structure with one TUNEL-positive nucleus, a TRAP-positive structure with one TUNEL-positive nucleus and one or two TUNEL-negative nuclei, and a TRAP-positive structure without any nucleus. By TEM, some odontoclasts showed nuclear fragments including compacted chromatin. The results suggest that, in apoptosis, odontoclasts fragment into variously sized cellular parts including three or fewer nuclei.3