A Combinatorial Approach to Regenerate the Periodontal Ligament and Cementum in a Nondental Microenvironment

and characterized. The cell-seeded TDMs were subsequently implanted into a 3-month-old rat greater omentum for 6 weeks, and further histological evaluation was performed. The results showed that cells grew well on the surface of TDMs, and mineralized nodules could be seen, especially in the HERS + DFCs group. After transplantation in rat omentum, periodontal ligament-like fibers and cementum-like structures were observed around the TDM in 1/3 of the samples in both the HERS group and the DFCs group and in 2/3 of the samples in the HERS + DFCs group, while almost no attached tissue formation was found in the TDM only group. The formed cementum width and the periodontal ligament length were significantly larger in the HERS + DFCs group. The periodontal ligament-like fibers in the HERS + DFCs group were orderly arranged and attached to the cementum-like tissues, which resembled the cementum-periodontal structure. Therefore, the combined use of DFCs, TDM, and HERS cells may be a promising strategy for the regeneration of the periodontal structures, especially in the nondental microenvironment.