Multipotent Progenitor Cells in Gingival Connective Tissue

Abstract

The gum has an exceptional capacity for healing. To examine the basis for this property and explore the potential of conferring it to organs with inferior healing capacity, we sought the presence of progenitor cells in gingival connective tissue. Colony-forming units of fibroblast-enriched cells from gingival fibroblast cultures were assessed for expression of membrane markers of mesenchymal stem cells; capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondroblasts, and adipocytes; and engraftment efficiency after in vivo transfer. On the basis of their ability to differentiate into several lineages, proliferate from single cells, induce calcium deposits, and secrete collagen in vivo after transfer on hydroxyapatite carriers, we suggest that this population represents gingival multipotent progenitor cells. The discovery of progenitor cells in gingival connective tissue may help improve our understanding of how the wounded gum is capable of almost perfect healing and opens the prospect of cellular therapy for wound healing using readily available cells at limited risk to the patient.

Therapeutic Potential of Gingival Fibroblasts for Cutaneous Radiation Syndrome: Comparison to Bone Marrow-Mesenchymal Stem Cell Grafts

“…The study was approved by the local ethics committee (Comité de Protection des Personnes (CPP) ''Ile de France II'' (May 11, 2012), IRB registration: 00001072) and all subjects gave written informed consent. As previously reported [19,21], primary explant cultures were established in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 5% human platelet lysate, penicillin (100 mg/mL), streptomycin (100 mg/mL), and amphotericin B (2 ng/mL) over 2-week periods. Monolayer cultures were maintained in 5% CO 2 and the cell culture medium was changed every 72 h. After 2 weeks, the GFs were trypsinized and single-cell suspensions were seeded at very low concentrations ( £ 100 cells/cm 2 ; medium, DMEM 10% of FBS with 50 mg/mL of ascorbic acid) after verification of the absence of cell aggregates to avoid false positives.…”

“…Gingival fibroblast (GF) culture, in which *3% of cells form colonies, expresses membrane markers similar to those of bone marrow-derived MSCs [18,19] and has, like them, immunomodulatory functions and the potential for multilineage differentiation [20,21]. The efficacy of GFs in wound healing was recently shown in a full-thickness skin defect [22].…”

Human Oral Mucosa and Gingiva

“…In addition to these tri-lineage potentials, oral mucosa-/gingiva-derived MSCs are capable of differentiating into endodermal and ectodermal lineages, including various types of neural cells (Zhang et al, 2009;Davies et al, 2010;Marynka-Kalmani et al, 2010). As found in vivo, oral mucosa-/gingiva-derived MSCs embedded with carriers and subcutaneously transplanted into immunocompromised mice can generate connective tissue-like structures (Zhang et al, 2009;Tang et al, 2011), bone matrix (Fournier et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2011) and even 2 germ-layer-derived (teratoma-like) tissues (Marynka-Kalmani et al, 2010).…”

Les cellules souches

“…Cette qualité est acquise depuis la vie embryonnaire et subsiste chez l'adulte grâce à une vascularisation bien assurée et à ses fibroblastes, cellules très abondantes dans ce tissu conjonctif ( fig. 6) [9,11]. Dans les tissus conjonctifs postnataux, comme celui donnant naissance à l' os, à la peau, à la muqueuse buccale, une variété de cellules souches à phénotype diffé-rent (MSCs) a pu être isolée comme celle trouvée dans la pulpe, le ligament parodontal, la moelle.…”