Maintenance of long junctional epithelium in the rat

The dynamics of the long junctional epithelium in rat gingivae were observed over a period of from three to six mo. In addition, the cellular dynamics of the epithelium were also evaluated at the end of three and six mo. The results of this study indicated that this model system cannot be used to study the long-term dynamics of long junctional epithelia. This study also indicated that the epithelial cuff increased in length with time, that it is a self-renewing tissue, and that long junctional epithelia may reduce in length with time due to sulcus deepening which was not related to subepithelial inflammation.