The effect of conditioned medium from connective tissue fibroblasts and epithelium on calcium release from mouse calvarial organ culture

Fibroblasts from periodontal ligament and gingival explants were cultured in vitro. The conditioned media from four different periodontal ligament and four gingival explant cultures were examined to determine their effect on calcium release in mouse calvarial organ culture. All the cultures stimulated calcium release, with a range of 20.6-43% over control. Conditioned media from two periodontal ligament cultures and a gingival culture significantly stimulated calcium release from the bone organ culture. The stimulatory activity in the oral fibroblast cell cultures was compared to that in conditioned medium from two non-oral, established, fibroblast cell lines and an epidermal keratinocyte cell line. Similar to the oral fibroblast cultures, conditioned medium from all three cell lines resulted in stimulation of calcium release in the bone culture assay. In order to characterize the bone-stimulating activity, a 0.4 μm membrane was used to separate the cell cultures from the bone organ culture. Both gingival and periodontal ligament fibroblast cultures gave values for calcium release significantly less than control when the separating membrane was used. Both non-oral cell lines and the epidermal keratinocyte cell line gave values for calcium release similar to those when no membrane was used. These results suggest that oral fibroblasts, but not non-oral fibroblasts and epidermal keratinocytes, release a unique bone-resorption stimulating activity.