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

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.