A comparative study of proliferation of periodontal ligament cells in the elderly

Objectives:To observe changes of proliferative ability of periodontal ligament cells in the elderly. Methods:Human periodontal ligament cells were cultured, and proliferation of elderly peoples periodontal ligament cells were measured by MTT colorimetric assay and were compared with that of periodontal ligament cells from the young. Results:Growth of healthy donor periodontal ligament cells were much slower than that of young healthy donors; proliferation( A 570 ) of elderly healthy donor periodontal ligament cells were considerably lower than that of young healthy donors on day 1,3, 5, 7 and 9 ( P 0.001 ). Conclusions:Under the influence of age, proliferative ability of periodontal ligament cells from the elderly were significantly decreased and was significantly different from that of young people. These showed that aging might be one of the important reasons which result in decrease of repairing and proliferative ability of elderly peoples periodontal tissues.