Lymphatic vessels of the human dental pulp in different conditions

Abstract

The characteristics of the lymphatic vessel endothelial wall have been investigated in human normal and inflamed dental pulps. In normal pulps the endothelial wall is characterized by the presence of micropinocytotic vesicles and intraparietal channels. In the inflamed pulpal tissue, where an increase in interstitial fluid pressure occurs, the distended endothelial wall presents open junctions between endothelial cells and the openings of the intraparietal channels. Moreover the micropinocytotic vesicles disappear. The cytoplasm of the endothelial cells is characterized by the presence of numerous Weibel-Palade bodies, which increase in number in the dilated vessels. In the fibrillar apparatus surrounding the lymphatic vessel wall collagen fibrils are the prevalent component, while elastic fibers are not present. The different morphological properties of the lymphatic vessels are compared and discussed with regard to the variation of the functional conditions of the tissue.

Immune Defense Mechanisms of the Dental Pulp

“…LYMPHATIC VESSELS Recent electron microscopic (Bishop and Malhotra, 1990;Marchetti et al, 1991Marchetti et al, , 1992 and histochemical (Aoyama et al, 1995) investigations have indicated the existence of lymphatic vessels in the pulp. It is thereby reasonable to assume that the pulp is provided by the ordinary route for DCs to migrate into regional lymph nodes, where they can stimulate naYve T-lymphocytes.…”

Lymph drainage in the human dental pulp

“…As our investigations and those of others ( Fig. 3; Marchetti et al, 1992) demonstrate, the lymph capillaries in the pulp are fixed in the connective tissue by collagen fibrils, which adhere to the plasmalemma of the endothelial cells, thus ensuring that the lymph capillaries remain open despite pressure changes.…”

“…The ensuing search for lymphatic vessels in the dental pulp can be traced back to 1882 (Bödecker, 1882) and has repeatedly been the subject of histological examinations with some controversial findings (Frank et al, 1977;Gä ngler and Mönch, 1980;Isokawa, 1960;Noyes, 1927;Riedel et al, 1966). As a result of more recent studies (Bernick, 1977;Bishop and Malhotra, 1990;Marchetti et al, 1991Marchetti et al, ., 1992Matsumoto et al, 1997;Sawa et al, 1998), the existence of a lymphatic system in the pulp has been established, but the exact functioning of lymphatic drainage within the dental pulp remains unclear.…”

“…For the maintainance of interstitial fluid equilibrium in the pulpal tissue, the existence of an effective lymph drainage has been postulated (Bernick, 1977;Marchetti et al, 1992;Matsumoto et al, 2002). The need for a sufficient clearance of tissue fluid and cell components of healthy and inflamed pulpal tissue is due to the surrounding dentin that imposes narrow limits on the compliance of the pulpal tissue (Heyeraas and Berggreen, 1999).…”

Structural Organization and Fine Distribution of Lymphatic Vessels in Periodontal Tissues of the Rat and Monkey: A Histochemical Study

“…Recently, research on lymph circulation and reflux in the periodontal tissues of sheep (Au et al, 1996), monkeys (Bernick and Grant, 1978), dogs (Tsukamoto, 1998) and humans (Marchetti et al, 1999) has focused on the gingival lymphatic pathway. Furthermore, existence of lymphatic vessels in the periodontal tissues and the dental pulp has been examined in rats (Kuriu, 1984), cats (Bishop and Malhotra, 1990) and humans (Marchetti et al, 1991(Marchetti et al, , 1992; Aoyama et al, 1995). Previously, we histochernically demonstrated the existence of lymphatic vessels in human dental pulp (Matsumoto et al, 1997) using 5'-nucleotidase (5'-Nase)-alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) double staining (Kato and Miyauchi, 1989;Kato et al, 1993).…”