Inhibition of fibroblast attachment

Reattachment is at present an ephemeral goal. There is, therefore, much interest in clarifying the events which determine patterns of cellular repopulation of denuded cementum during periodontal healing, and thus determine the outcome of reattachment surgery. It has previously been reported that human saliva inhibits the initial attachment or subsequent locomotion of human gingival fibroblast-like cells on plastic substrata in vitro, and that this property is a function of a high molecular weight sulphated glycoprotein in saliva. Recent work reported here shows that saliva in vitro also inhibits attachment to human cementum in serum-free medium. This effect can be reversed by superficial citric acid (pH 1.0) demineralisation of saliva-treated cementum. However, demineralisation itself does not augment cell attachment to either saliva-coated or normal cementum compared with controls. It is postulated that adsorption of saliva on cementum in vivo may lead to periodontal wound healing by repair (long junctional epithelium) rather than by regeneration of ligament and cementum; a novel explanation for the previously reported efficacy of citric acid in wound healing might be related to its ability to remove adsorbed saliva from the root surface and thus permit early root colonisation by connective tissue cells.