Effect of follicular dendritic cell secreted protein on gene expression of human periodontal ligament cells

- FDC-SP's intrinsic functions in hPDLCs' phenotype expression was investigated upon microarray analysis.
- FDC-SP upregulates expressions of genes encoding cell-cycle proteins, blood-related and cell differentiation-related proteins in hPDLCs.
- FDC-SP downregulates expressions of genes encoding cytokine/growth factors, signal transduction and metabolism-related genes in hPDLCs.
- FDC-SP showed potentials to maintain PDL homeostasis, thus may contribute to periodontal would-healing processes.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the specific roles of follicular dendritic cell secreted protein (FDC-SP), a protein exists in saliva, in the inhibition of calcium precipitation during periodontal regeneration, as well as affect phenotype expression of human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs) during the differentiation process.DesignTo investigate this, we applied microarray technology to identify gene expression changes in hPDLCs transfected with FDC-SP and then clustered them according to their biological functions.ResultsOne hundred seventy-one genes were found differentially expressed by at least two-fold between FDC-SP -transfected and empty vector-transfected cells. Besides, genes encoding cell-cycle proteins, blood-related and cell differentiation-related proteins tended to be up-regulated after FDC-SP transfection, whereas cytokine/growth factors, signal transduction and metabolism-related genes tended to be down-regulated in hPDLCs overexpression FDC-SP.ConclusionsThe present study investigated FDC-SP's roles in hPDLCs' phenotype expression, via comparing the gene expression profiles between FDC-SP -transfected hPDLCs and empty vector-transfected cells upon microarray analysis. hPDLCs overexpression FDC-SP appear to display different gene expression patterns. In all, these observations showed a potential of FDC-SP in the maintenance of PDL homeostasis and its ultimate contribution to periodontal would-healing processes.