Quantitative analysis of catecholamines in human dental pulp

Catecholamines are important elements of neuroendocrine regulation, and the ir concentrations in dental pulp are of interest. Two groups of teeth were used in this study: (i) healthy teeth and (ii) periodontally diseased teeth . After the processing of dental pulp obtained from the extracted teeth, th e samples were analyzed in a computer-controlled Merck-Hitachi HPLC system at 280 nm wavelength. The external and internal standard methods of the HPL C Manager Program were used for validation. In healthy teeth the norepineph rine level of dental pulp was 4.86 +/- 0.96 mu g/g, whereas the epinephrine level was 8.1 +/- 1.18 mu g/g. In periodontally diseased teeth norepinephr ine and epinephrine levels were significantly higher (p < 0.01) at 13.98 +/ - 21.13 mu g/g and 1.42 +/- 0.32 mu g/g, respectively. Dopamine could not b e demonstrated in 87% of the pulps. Summing up we succeeded in demonstratin g norepinephrine and epinephrine in human pulp, but in most cases we could not demonstrate dopamine. Further investigations are needed on pulp tissue infected because of caries.