Abstract
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the presence and anatomical positions of connective tissue progenitor cell populations in the gingival papilla of the rat. Ten male hooded Lister rats aged 4 wk were killed 1 h after flash labelling with tritiated thymidine. Paraffin sections were cut through the molar regions of 19 mandibles parallel to the occlusal plane. Sections immediately apical to the epithelium of the col and just coronal to the crest of the interdental septum (levels 1 and 5) were chosen for autoradiography, as were a further three sections (levels 2, 3 and 4), spaced equidistantly between levels 1 and 5 in a subsample of 10 of these mandibles. Mean labelling indices (LIs) for all 19 specimens were significantly higher within 5 μm of the teeth at levels 1 and 5, and in a zone 15–25 μm from the teeth in level 5. LIs for the subsample of 10 mandibles were also significantly higher within 5 μm of the teeth in levels 3 and 5, and within 15–20 μm in levels 4 and 5. Nuclear densities were highest at all levels within 10 μm of the teeth and at 20 μm (levels 1–3) or 30 Jan (levels 4 and 5) from the teeth. The data are consistent with the existence of ostensible connective tissue progenitor cell populations, one in contact with cementum and junctional epithelium, the other lying in the body of the papilla at its most apical levels, 15–25 μm from the teeth.
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