Paradoxical dose-response effects of fluoride

Fluoride

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 143-147

  Burgstahler, Albert W ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACID PHOSPHATASE; ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE; AMYLASE; ASCORBIC ACID; ASPARTATE AMINOTRANSFERASE; BILIRUBIN; DRINKING WATER; FLUORIDE; GAMMA GLUTAMYLTRANSFERASE; GLUTATHIONE; GLUTATHIONE PEROXIDASE; GLUTATHIONE TRANSFERASE; HIGH DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN; LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE; MALONALDEHYDE; SELENIUM; TRIACYLGLYCEROL;

BONE STRENGTH; CONCENTRATION RESPONSE; DOSE RESPONSE; EDITORIAL; ENZYME ACTIVITY; FLUOROSIS; HEMATOPOIESIS; HORMESIS; HUMAN; IN VITRO STUDY; IN VIVO STUDY; NONHUMAN; UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD;

EID: 0036695144     PISSN: 00154725     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Editorial

References (13)

1. Schatz A, Schalscha EB, Schatz V. Soil organic matter as a natural chelating material, Part 2: The occurrence and importance of paradoxical concentration effects in biological systems. Compost Sci 1964;5(1):26-30. Professor Schatz (Personal communication, June 30, 2002) provided the following explanation of why this review was written. In 1960, after three years of graduate work, his wife Vivian had completed all her course work and all examination requirements and had passed her Ph.D. written preliminary examination in the Department of Microbiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She then spent two additional years doing research on the inhibitory effects of adenine on the growth of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium LT-2 in the presence of thiamine (Schatz V. Adaptive growth of Salmonella typhimurium on adenine. Naturwissenschaften 1964;51:121). During this work she found that adenine paradoxically affected the growth of S. typhimurium, with an acceleration by adenine at 5 and 20 μg/mL but a strong inhibition at 10 μg/mL in the presence of thiamine at concentrations ranging from only 0.005 to 0.1 μg/mL. Her dissertation committee, however, doubted the validity of the paradoxical effect and required her to devote six months of additional research to replicate and verify her findings. Despite her doing that, her committee refused to grant her a Ph.D. and awarded her only a master's degree after she had successfully completed five years of graduate study. Together with her husband, she subsequently published a report on those findings (Schatz A, Schatz V. Paradoxical effect of adenine on Salmonella typhimurium. Can J Microbiol 1965; 11: 1029-31). From this sad story, one is reminded of the similar experience of Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927), who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903 for his seminal research on the electrolytic dissociation of ionic compounds in water. At his defense of his doctoral dissertation on the "the electrical conductivity of salts in solution" at the University of Uppsala in 1884, he was awarded a fourth class degree (non sine laude approbatur - "approved without praise"), which prevented him from becoming a docent. However, Professor Sven Petersson at the University of Stockholm recognized the value and importance of what Arrhenius had proposed, and, despite its rejection at the time, it was not long before it became widely accepted as Arrhenius went on to achieve the fame he deserved. Unfortunately, this has not proved to be the case with the discovery of paradoxical effects, at least in biology.
2. Schatz A, Martin JJ. The importance of paradoxical effects of fluoride with respect to fluoridation and the toxicology of fluoride. Pakistan Dent Rev 1964;14(4):113-28.
3. Jenkins N. Rejoinder letter. Fluoride 1997;30:272-3, commenting on Schatz, A. Paradoxical effects: critique of a study. Fluoride 1997;30:131-3. For additional correspondence, see Fluoride 1997;30:199-204; 1998;31:245-6; 1999;32:43-4.
4. Bohatyrewicz A, Bialecki P, Larysz D, Gusta A. Compressive strength of cancellous bone in fluoride-treated rats. Fluoride 2001;34:236-41.
5. Alarcón-Herrera MT, Martín-Domínguez IR, Trejo-Vázquez R, Rodriguez-Dozal S. Well water fluoride, dental fluorosis, and bone fractures in the Guadiana Valley of Mexico. Fluoride 2001;34:139-49.
6. Machalinski B, Zejmo M, Stecewicz I, Machalinska A, Machoy Z, Ratajczak MZ. The influence of sodium fluoride on the clonogenecity of human hematopoietic progenitor cells: preliminary report. Fluoride 2000;33:168-73.
7. Machalinska A, Machoy-Mokrzynska A, Marlicz W, Stecewiecz I, Machalinski B. NaF-induced apoptosis in human bone marrow and cord blood CD34 positive cells. Fluoride 2001;34:258-63.
8. Nicolau J, Leite MF. In vitro and in vivo effects of fluoride solutions on human salivary amylase. Fluoride 2001;34:55-60.
9. Hara K, Yu M-H. Effect of fluoride on human salivary amylase activity. Fluoride 1995;28:71-4.
10. Isaacson RL, Varner JA, Jensen KF. Toxin-induced blood vessel inclusions caused by chronic administration of aluminum and sodium fluoride and their implications for dementia. Ann NY Acad Sci 1997;825:152-66. Along with detailed abstracts of this and the following paper in ref. 11, our Managing Editor Bruce Spittle published a cogent discussion of this research in Fluoride 1998;31:89-99.
11. Varner, JA Jensen KF, Horvath W, Isaacson RL. Chronic administration of aluminum-fluoride or sodium-fluoride to rats in drinking water: alterations in neuronal and cerebrovascular integrity. Brain Res 1998;784:284-98.
12. Gofman JW, O'Connor E. X-Rays: Health effects of common exams. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books; 1985. For a very readable account of the controversy over the alleged safety of low-level radiation based on linear extrapolations from high exposures, see Ackland L. Radiation: how safe is it? New Scientist 15 May 1993:34-7. For a recent differing analysis and viewpoint based on evidence of beneficial hormetic effects, see Bethell T. Underdose: Could toxins-and radiation-be good for you? The American Spectator 2002 July/August;35:54-61. For a compilation of reviews and assessments of hormetic effects in biological systems, see Special Issue: Scientific Foundations of Hormesis, Calabrese EJ and Baldwin LA, Guest Editors. Crit Rev Toxicol 2001;31(4,5)351-5)695.
13. Lubkowska A, Zyluk B, Chlubek D. Interactions between fluorine and aluminum. Fluoride 2002;35:73-7.