Animal modeling in anthropological research: Example of flor exposure in rats

In the study; effects of the application of fluorine which is an important element, in different doses and durations on weight loss, muscle and movement resistance, accumulation and deformation in bone and tooth tissues were investigated with an experimental animal model.In the study, adult male Wistar-albino rats weighing 150-200 gr were used.56 rats were divided into 7 different groups with a total of 56.There were eight rats in each group (n = 8) and the other six groups except the control group were treated with different doses of fluoride at different times. Weight was measured on 1, 30, 60 and 90 days of each group and no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of weight loss.In addition, rotarod test was applied to measure the effect of fluorine exposure on the movement resistance of rats.With this application, it was found that the fluorine had a negative effect on the movement system and the applied fluorine decreased the locomotor activity depending on the dose and time.In this modeling study, it was observed that the neck (cortical tissue) as well as the head part of the femoral bone (trabecular tissue) was an important fluorine accumulation area.At the same time, the rib bone is revealed as a significant area of fluorine accumulation and therefore is presented as a remarkable tissue in the measurement by the study.However, in parallel with the increase in the duration and amount of fluorine exposure, it was observed that there was a remarkable fluorine increase in the femoral head, femur neck and rib bones and this increase was concentration dependent.Although a significant increase in fluoride was observed in the bones, no deformation was observed in the bones (femur, humerus, ribs and teeth) obtained from experimental groups by macroanalysis.Although no structural changes were observed by macroanalysis, a severe thinning of the epiphyseal growth plate and bone trabeculae was detected in microanalyses performed in the femoral bone tissue by light microscopy (Leica DM 1000). Keywords: Anthropology, Paleopathology, Dental fluorosis, Skeletal fluorosis