Discrimination of epithelium-like and fibroblast-like phenotypes derived from ethanol-treated immortalised human gingival keratinocytes in epithelial equivalents.

Ethanol treatment of immortalised human gingival keratinocytes (IHGK) yields in an epithelium-like (EPI) and fibroblast-like (FIB) phenotype. With respect to the stratified gingival epithelium, putative structural and molecular differences assigning cells to these phenotypes have not, to date, been analysed in a three-dimensional tissue/epithelial context. Therefore, we generated epithelial equivalents (EEs) in organotypic co-cultures of IHGK, EPI and FIB cells for 1 and 2 weeks and conducted protein and gene expression studies on the EEs for epithelial biomarkers including keratin K14, integrin subunits alpha6 and beta1, E-cadherin, and mesenchymal vimentin. As in the EEs of IHGK and EPI, indirect immunofluorescence revealed continuous expression of beta1 integrin in EEs of FIB cells. However, FIB cells exhibited a significant down-regulation in K14 and integrin alpha6 protein and a loss of E-cadherin at week 2, whereas vimentin was increased. FIB EEs were devoid of transcripts for E-cadherin at both time points, although transcription of the other genes remained constant in all phenotypes. Thus, the FIB phenotype exhibited a poor epithelial structure coinciding with disturbances in the expression of epithelial biomarkers and the persistence of mesenchymal vimentin. Transcription analysis revealed post-transcriptional regulation of vimentin in IHGK and EPI and of K14 and alpha6 in FIB cells. Our findings indicate that differences in the epithelial integrity and expression of molecules in EEs allow for the discrimination of EPI and FIB cells. This suggests that FIB cells share features of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and reflect a more progressive stage in epithelial cell transformation.