Pattern of Mineral Uptake in Developing Bovine Incisors

This paper describes a stage in the development of deciduous bovine incisor enamel in which the tissue becomes extremely porous. This porosity, due apparently to a loss of matrix protein, is subsequently occluded by the acquisition of mineral in a secondary mineralisation phase. The porous zone has been demonstrated by a difference observed in the location of secondary mineral uptake per dry weight of tissue and secondary mineral uptake per volume of tissue. It appears to represent a stage of development analogous to that previously described in the continuously growing rat incisor.