Morphological and functional characteristics of human gingival junctional epithelium.
BACKGROUND
This study aims to observe the morphological characteristics and identify the function characteristics of junctional epithelium (JE) tissues and cultured JE cells.


METHODS
Paraffin sections of human molar or premolar on the gingival buccolingual side were prepared from 6 subjects. HE staining and image analysis were performed to measure and compare the morphological difference among JE, oral gingival epithelium (OGE) and sulcular epithelium (SE). Immunohistochemistry was applied to detect the expression pattern of cytokeratin 5/6, 7, 8/18, 10/13, 16, 17, 19, and 20 in JE, OGE and SE. On the other hand, primary human JE and OGE cells were cultured in vitro. Cell identify was confirmed by histology and immunohistochemistry. In a co-culture model, TEM was used to observe the attachment formation between JE cells and tooth surface.


RESULTS
Human JE was a unique tissue which was different from SE and OGE in morphology. Similarly, morphology of JE cells was also particular compared with OGE cells cultured in vitro. In addition, JE cells had a longer incubation period than OGE cells. Different expression of several CKs illustrated JE was in a characteristic of low differentiation and high regeneration. After being co-cultured for 14 d, multiple cell layers, basement membrane-like and hemidesmosome-like structures were appeared at the junction of JE cell membrane and tooth surface.


CONCLUSIONS
JE is a specially stratified epithelium with low differentiation and high regeneration ability in gingival tissue both in vivo and in vitro. In co-culture model, human JE cells can form basement membrane-like and hemidesmosome-like structures in about 2 weeks.
Qian
Q
Jiang
Department of Stomatology, Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China. yuyouchenggb@163.com.
Youcheng
Y
Yu
Hong
H
Ruan
Yin
Y
Luo
Xuehua
X
Guo
D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D004846:Epithelial Attachment / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D004848:Epithelium / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D005881:Gingiva / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D022002:Hemidesmosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D014092:Tooth Root / Q000033:anatomy & histology
D007633:Keratins