Effects of fibrinogen in vivo on dentine permeability in the dog

Dentine permeability measurements were made each hour for 6 h in tooth cavities prepared in control dogs or dogs which had been pretreated with a purified fraction of snake venom to deplete their plasma of fibrinogen. The control dogs exhibited a progressive fall in dentine permeability (~ 50 per cent reduction in 6 h); the permeability in the fibrinogen-depleted dogs only fell 15 per cent in 6 h. The results implicate plasma proteins, particularly high molecular-weight proteins such as fibrinogen, as agents which reduce dentine permeability in vivo.