Effects of hyaluronan oligosaccharides on apoptosis ofhuman gingival fibroblasts

An?increased?content?of?low?molecular?weight (LMW)- HA?was?found?in?human?gingiva?during?the?initial phase of?periodontitis. A?number?of?functions?have?been?described?for LMW-HA?in?inflammatory?processes.?It?is?also?demonstrated?that?LMWHA?induces?apoptosis?in?chondrocytes?and?tumor?cells,?however, effects of?LMWHA on the apoptosis?of?gingival?fibroblasts?(GFs) remain?unclear. The?purpose?of?this?study?was?to?investigate?the effects?of HA?oligosaccharides?(HAoligo) on?the apoptosis of GFs. GFs were?isolated?from?palatal?gingival?tissues around?the upper?first?premolars of eight youth?(6 -10?years?old)?and eight adult?(26 -35?years?old) subjects.?Cultured?GFs?were?subjected?to?the?analyses,?ELISA?for?cell?proliferation,?quantitative real?time-PCR?for?gene?expression?of?Bcl-2,?and?caspase-3?assay?for?apoptotic potency. Proliferative?activity?of?cultured?GFs was increased?