Role of Meckel's Cartilage in the Development and Growth of the Rat Mandible

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A new method has been employed to study the role of Meckel''s cartilage in mandibular growth. It consists of a serial histologic study of Meckel''s cartilage in a mutant strain of rats (ia) in which growth of cartilage and bone occurs normally but the resorption of bone tissue is absent or severely retarded. Consequently, the perichondral bony splint which forms around Meckel''s cartilage prior to and during its ossification persists and serves not only as an indicator of the path of growth of this cartilage but also as a fixed point from which quantitative studies can be made. This investigation is based on serial histologic study of heads of 41 ia and 43 normal littermates ranging from 13 days insemination age to 30 days after birth. A comparison of ia rats at successive stages gave the increments and directions of growth in cartilage, and by a comparison of ia with normal rats at the same developmental stage the extent of resorption of calcified cartilage could be measured. This study shows that Meckel''s cartilage (1) plays an important role in the linear and transverse growth of the mandibular process and of the mandible; (2) partly undergoes endochondral ossification and partly degenerates; and (3) does not form the sphenomandibular ligament.