Abstract
The present study was undertaken to examine the alkaline and acid phosphatase (ALPase and ACPase) activities in the first lower molar tooth germs of rats cultivated under a lowcalcium environment. The right and left first lower molar tooth germs were extracted from 12 neo-natal Wistar strain rats. The right and left molar tooth germs were used as control and low Ca groups respectively. These tooth germs were cultivated in normal and low Ca culture media for 8 days, exchanging the culture medium every other day. ALPase and ACPase activities were measured on 0, 4 and 8 days in culture, using the Kind and King method (1954) . ALPase activity per pg protein was lower in the low Ca group than in the control group, and showed a tendency to decrease in the control group and to increase in the low Ca group time-dependently. The ratios of ALPase activity in the low Ca group to that in control group after 8 days in culture was higher than that after 4 days in culture. ACPase activity per μg protein showed a tendency to decrease in both groups time-dependently. ACPase activity was lower in the low Ca group than in the control group. The ratios of ACPase activity in the low Ca group after 8 days in culture was similar to that after 4 days in culture. From these results, it was suggested that ALPase activity showed a tendency to increase in the first lower molar tooth germs of rats cultivated under the low calcium environment.
