Human Periodontal Ligament Cell Sheets Can Regenerate Periodontal Ligament Tissue in an Athymic Rat Model

Abstract

Conventional periodontal regeneration methods remain insufficient to attain complete and reliable clinical regeneration of periodontal tissues. We have developed a new method of cell transplantation using cell sheet engineering and have applied it to this problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of human periodontal ligament (HPDL) cell sheets retrieved from culture on unique temperature-responsive culture dishes, and to examine whether these cell sheets can regenerate periodontal tissues. The HPDL cell sheets were examined histologically and biochemically, and also were transplanted into a mesial dehiscence model in athymic rats. HPDL cells were harvested from culture dishes as a contiguous cell sheet with abundant extracellular matrix and retained intact integrins that are susceptible to trypsin-EDTA treatment. In the animal study, periodontal ligament-like tissues that include an acellular cementum-like layer and fibrils anchoring into this layer were identified in all the athymic rats transplanted with HPDL cell sheets. This fibril anchoring highly resembles native periodontal ligament fibers; such regeneration was not observed in nontransplanted controls. These results suggest that this technique, based on the concept of cell sheet engineering, can be useful for periodontal tissue regeneration.

Application of the cell sheet technique in tissue engineering

“…In the study of Hasegawa et al (21), a human PDL cell sheet was transplanted into a mesial dehiscence model in athymic rats. Periodontal ligament-like tissues that included an acellular cementum-like layer and fibrils anchoring into this layer were identified in the cell sheet groups.…”

Endothelial cells enhance the in vivo bone-forming ability of osteogenic cell sheets

“…Cell adhesion is therefore controllable by modulating the temperature. Using this strategy, our group has been proposing solutions for the regeneration of cornea, 10 myocardium, 13 periodontal ligament 14 and bladder, 15 among others. Recently, we proposed the use of osteogenic CSs produced using thermoresponsive dishes for bone tissue engineering applications.…”

Odontogenic epithelial stem cells: hidden sources

“…12 The DSC sources located so far in teeth are listed in Table 1. 3,9,[13][14][15][16][17] Many reports have described the multi-potentiality and possible applications of mesenchymal DSCs in dental and non-dental tissue regeneration. [18][19][20][21][22][23] [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Their uniqueness of development from CNCCs explains their multilineage differentiation characteristics.…”