Bone-Body Fluid Fluoride Balance

Abstract

Fluoride (F) in urine has long been known to reflect intestinal F absorption as well as F liberation from a fluoride-rich skeleton, but blood plasma F has been believed only to show a limited absorption tide. Nobody seems to have observed plasma F values elevated due to the process of gradual F depletion of an F-rich skeleton. Some of the variations of plasma inorganic F may have been obscured by analytical methods, which have comprised the fraction of organically bound plasma F also. While the ionizable F (F⁻) of a young person’s fasting plasma generally is as low as 0.01–0.02 ppm, or 0.5–1 µM/1, the organically bound F may be 5 to 10 times higher. The nature of organic F bonding in plasma is not yet understood, but it is evident that the ionized or easily ionizable plasma F is the physiologically active fraction.

These investigations were supported in part by Patentmedelsfonden för odontologisk profylaxforskning (Swedish Patent Revenue Research Fund).