FIGURE 3.

Enamel formation. From left to right: A layer of columnar ameloblasts lay down their protein matrix, which becomes mineralized to form enamel. Each individual ameloblast produces a cylindrical matrix field that becomes mineralized as a rod within a “honeycomb”-like continuum of interrod; the complex migratory vectors of ameloblasts weave rods into a complex fibrous network. Each rod is composed of multitudes of individual crystallites organized by amelogenin nanospheres; amelogenin proteins spontaneously form nanospheres in physologic conditions.