Retzius stripes

Upper anterior tooth in which the Retzius stripes can be clearly seen in the full image resolution

Retzius stripes on a fossil molar of Paranthropus robustus

As Retzius (also: Retzius lines , Retzius striae or perikymata ) are visible in high magnification, distributed over the entire melting sheath growth lines of the enamel referred to, which extend from side to side parallel to each other. In the cross-section of the tooth, the Retzius stripes appear as concentric circles. The distance from line to line is between 4 and 150 μm .

The name is reminiscent of the Swedish anatomist and anthropologist Anders Adolf Retzius (1796–1860), who first correctly described these strips as “the traces of different periods of enamel formation” in a study on the embryology and histology of teeth in 1837 .

The Retzius strips arise because the rhythm of the mineralization is subject to daily fluctuations. They are considered to be the result of a resting phase between two secretion phases of the adamantoblasts . Furthermore, special physiological events can disturb the formation of enamel, for example the change in diet after birth (“birth line”) as well as febrile and other serious illnesses (“stress lines”). The Retzius strips thus show an individual pattern in each person and can therefore also be evaluated for forensic purposes. Fossil teeth are used in paleoanthropology, for example, to use these strips to reconstruct the development speed of young people from early species of hominini .

Web links

Nina Eckardt: The history of the histogenesis and histology of the tooth enamel between 1770 and 1890. (PDF; 247 kB) Dissertation, Ruhr University Bochum, 2001.

Individual evidence

↑ Anders Adolph Retzius: Comments on the internal structure of the teeth, with special consideration of the tubular structure occurring in the tooth bone. Archive for Anatomy, Physiology and Scientific Medicine, Berlin 1837, p. 539
↑ Hubert E. Schroeder: Orale structural biology. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, New York, 4th edition 1992, p. 37 ff.
↑ Ulrich Welsch: Sobotta textbook histology. Urban & Fischer Verlag, 2nd edition 2006, p. 348
↑ An example of this is: Tanya M. Smith et al .: Rapid dental development in a Middle Paleolithic Belgian Neanderthal. PNAS , Volume 104, No. 51, 2007, pp. 20220-20225, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0707051104

[1] Anders Adolph Retzius: Comments on the internal structure of the teeth, with special consideration of the tubular structure occurring in the tooth bone. Archive for Anatomy, Physiology and Scientific Medicine, Berlin 1837, p. 539

[2] Hubert E. Schroeder: Orale structural biology. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, New York, 4th edition 1992, p. 37 ff.

[3] Ulrich Welsch: Sobotta textbook histology. Urban & Fischer Verlag, 2nd edition 2006, p. 348

[4] An example of this is: Tanya M. Smith et al .: Rapid dental development in a Middle Paleolithic Belgian Neanderthal. PNAS , Volume 104, No. 51, 2007, pp. 20220-20225, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0707051104