The effect of corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide on the eruption of resected incisor teeth in the rat.

It has been observed that there may be two mechanisms making resected rat incisors erupt during their phase of normal eruption rates, only one of which works during their slow phase of eruption. The effects of cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids on the eruption of non-resected teeth may also be consistent with the presence of two eruptive mechanisms, one responsive to cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids, the other not, or less, responsive to them. To see whether this previous work has, in different experiments, revealed the same pair of mechanisms, the effects of cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids on resected incisors were investigated. Cortisone accelerated their eruption and cyclophosphamide slowed it when they were erupting at normal rates, but neither compound had any effect during the initial slow phase.