title: Development of an oral mucosa model to study host-microbiome interactions during wound healing.
abstract: Crosstalk between the human host and its microbiota is reported to influence various diseases such as mucositis. Fundamental research in this area is however complicated by the time frame restrictions during which host-microbe interactions can be studied in vitro. The model proposed in this paper, consisting of an oral epithelium and biofilm, can be used to study microbe-host crosstalk in vitro in non-infectious conditions up to 72 h. Microbiota derived from oral swabs were cultured on an agar/mucin layer and challenged with monolayers of keratinocytes grown on plastic or collagen type I layers embedded with fibroblasts. The overall microbial biofilm composition in terms of diversity remained representative for the oral microbiome, whilst the epithelial cell morphology and viability were unaffected. Applying the model to investigate wound healing revealed a reduced healing of 30 % in the presence of microbiota, which was not caused by a reduction of the proliferation index (52.1-61.5) or a significantly increased number of apoptotic (1-1.13) or necrotic (32-30.5 %) cells. Since the model allows the separate study of the microbial and cellular exometabolome, the biofilm and epithelial characteristics after co-culturing, it is applicable for investigations within fundamental research and for the discovery and development of agents that promote wound healing.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research (LECR), Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185 1P7, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium, tine.deryck@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Tine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: De Ryck
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grootaert
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jaspaert
authors.forename: Frederiek-Maarten
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Kerckhof
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Gele
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Schrijver
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van den Abbeele
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Swift
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bracke
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Van de Wiele
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vanhoecke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D018441:Biofilms; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D064307:Microbiota; D008954:Models, Biological; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology; D014945:Wound Healing