The Effect of Adenosine in the Phenotype of Gingival Fibroblasts

Abstract

Our research was focused on the role of gingival fibroblasts in the gingival inflammatory response and in periodontitis. Previous work in our lab has identified adenosine signaling as a key pathway able to control inflammatory chemokine secretion of gingival fibroblasts. The data from human correlative studies comparing chemokine expression in healthy versus periodontitis was combined with our in vitro analysis of immunofluorescence. Our in vitro data from immunofluorescence results demonstrated the effect of adenosine in the inflammatory response of gingival fibroblasts, typified by the expression of CXCL8- family of cytokines, including CXCL1. We demonstrated the anti-inflammatory effect of adenosine on fibroblast phenotype typified by the decreased IL-1β-stimulated CXCL1 expression. CXCL1 was also significantly higher in samples derived from different grades/severity of periodontitis compared to healthy-derived samples in our analysis of a public dataset. Our data indicated fibroblasts have an important role in gingival inflammatory response. In our findings, the expression or production of CXCL1 was abrogated after treating the human gingival fibroblasts with adenosine after IL-1β stimulation. Thus, adenosine may influence the stromal gingival inflammatory response in periodontitis by reducing the fibroblast-mediated activation of inflammatory cells.