Establishment of clonal periodontal ligament cell line derived from deciduous tooth immortalized by human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene transfer

Abstract

Recently, many studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exist in dental pulp and periodontal ligament (PDL) of human deciduous teeth. MSCs derived from extracted teeth have been considered an appropriate candidate for not only dental tissue regeneration but also for the treatment of general diseases. However, there was no immortal PDL cell line derived from human deciduous teeth for cell- based regeneration study. In this study, we established tree PDL cell lines derived from human deciduous tooth immortalized by the transfection with human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene. The transfected cells were named SH, Single cell from Human periodontal ligament. All SH clones expressed hTERT and scleraxis, periostin, cementum-derived protein 23 and tenomodulin. Though all SH clones expressed osteoblastic marker genes, only the clone, SH 9 cells, differentiated mature osteoblasts. These clones could be useful for the research in regenerative medicine.