Effect of FDC-SP on Gene Expression of Human Periodontal Ligament Cells

Previous research has reported that FDC-SP had similar molecular properties to statherin, a protein exists in saliva which plays important roles in preventing Ca precipitation. Further biomolecular study has suggested that the expression of FDC-SP may be associated with periodontal ligament (PDL) phenotype expression. Therefore, we hypothesized that FDC-SP may play specific roles in the inhibition of calcium precipitation during periodontal regeneration, as well as affect phenotype expression of periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) during the differentiation process. To investigate this, we applied microarray technology to identify gene expression changes in hPDLCs transfected with FDC-SP and then clustered them according to their biological functions. We firstly established a recombinant lentiviral vector containing FDC-SP and obtained safe and efficient FDC-SP overexpression in human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs). After that, we applied Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarray (4×44K) to identify differentially expressed genes between empty vector-transfected hPDLCs and FDC-SP -transfected ones and then clustered them according to their biological functions. 3 independent experiments were performed and the empty vector-transfected hPDLCs were used as control.