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

Objective: The 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. Design: To 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. Results: One 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. Conclusions: The 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.