The effects of culture environment on the response of human gingival fibroblasts to cyclosporin A.

In contrast to monolayer cell culture, the use of a 3-dimensional culture system creates an environment which is more physiologically comparable to conditions in vivo. This study aimed to investigate the effects of culture environment on growth and protein biosynthesis by 6 human gingival fibroblast cell lines exposed to cyclosporin A (CsA). Fibroblasts were grown both in monolayer culture on plastic and embedded within collagen gel. Cyclosporin A was added to cultures at a range of concentrations between 10(-5) and 10(-9) g/ml. Under both culture conditions CsA had little effect on cell growth at low concentrations but at the highest concentration of 10(-5) g/ml, there was a significant inhibitory effect on growth (P < 0.05). Protein production was not significantly affected by CsA in either culture system. Total collagen production appeared to be inhibited at high concentrations of CsA when cells were grown on plastic but remained unaffected when the cells were grown in collagen gel. Total protein and collagen production per cell in collagen gel was substantially greater compared with cells grown on plastic. We conclude that under the conditions of this investigation CsA did not directly stimulate growth or matrix-synthesis by normal human gingival fibroblasts cultured in 3-dimensional collagen gel or as monolayers on plastic.