Gingival Epithelial Cell Transcriptional Responses to Commensal and Opportunistic Oral Microbial Species.

Transcriptional profiling was utilized to define the biological pathways of gingival epithelial cells modulated by co-culture with the oral commensal S. gordonii and the opportunistic commensal F. nucleatum. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying infection and identified distinct classes of up- and down-regulated genes during this process. Keywords: infection state Gingival epithelial HIGK cells were sham infected (CTRL) and infected with either the oral commensal S. gordonii (Sg) or the opportunistic commensal F. nucleatum (Fn). These samples were hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays. Understanding how host cells have adapted to commensals, and how barrier cells respond to limit their impact, provides a mechanistic biological basis of health in the mixed bacterial-human ecosystem of the oral cavity.