ANALYSIS OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN PRE- AND POST-NATAL TOOTH ENAMEL USING MICRO-PIXE

摘要

Naturally shed deciduous teeth are potentially useful as a biomarker of environmental exposure. Tonassess the prenatal environment of child, we tried to present the neonatal line on the elemental mapsnand investigate the trace elements in pre- and post-natally formed tooth enamel using micro-PIXE.nGenerally, the neonatal line is observed more clearly in the tooth from child who has somendifficulties at birth. In this study, five deciduous teeth from five children with developmentalndisorders were used for analysis. Seven trace elements (Na, Mg, Si, Cl, Fe, Zn, and Sr) werendetected in enamel of all five teeth. The line, it was thought neonatal line, was observed on thenelemental map of Ca and P in the tooth from the child with serious birth complications. In order toncompare the elemental concentration between pre- and post-natal enamel, concentration variation ofnelements were projected along the line perpendicular to the neonatal line. Lower Ca concentration innprenatal enamel was observed. By tracing the location of neonatal line on the other elemental maps,nthe concentrations of detected trace elements were compared in the same way. The differences ofnconcentration of these trace elements between pre- and post-natal enamel were not clear because ofnmuch statistic variation. We could determine the trace elemental profiles and concentrations aroundnthe neonatal line in the enamel from the child with serious birth complications.