Identification of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Marker STRO-1 in Oral Reactive Lesions by Immunofluorescence Method

Stem cells are considered as new implement for tissue regeneration. Several niches in adult human body are colonized by multipotent stem cells but access to these potential reservoirs is often limited. Although human dental pulp stem cells isolated from healthy teeth have been extensively characterized, it is still unknown whether stem cells also exist in reactive lesions of oral cavity such as pyogenic granuloma and peripheral ossifying fibroma which are deliberated as inflammatory proliferation of different cell families.

The aim of this study was to explore for clues to see whether pyogenic granuloma or peripheral ossifying fibroma contain dental mesenchymal stem cell (DMSC).

Four pyogenic granuloma and four peripheral ossifying fibroma specimens were collected by excisional biopsy and preserved in PBS-EDTA at -86 °C. Then we cut them in 5µm diameter using Cryostat. Having been rinsed with PBS, the samples were stained with a primary mouse anti-human STRO-1 monoclonal IgM antibody. Afterward, a secondary goat anti-mouse IgM-FITC antibody was applied to detect STRO-1+ cells as probable stem cells by immunofluorescence technique.

Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed presence of STRO-1+ cells in these lesions, particularly localized on perivascular zone. The negative control group was not glowing.

Based on these results, it was found that reactive lesions of pyogenic granuloma and peripheral ossifying fibroma have STRO-1 positive cells, which raises the possibility that these cells may be DMSCs.