DONOR VARIABILITY IN THE PROLIFERATION OF HUMAN DENTAL-PULP FIBROBLASTS

Fibroblasts were isolated from human dental pulps of healthy third mol ars from 49 donors of ages ranging from 17 to 68. Significant variabil ity was noted in the success of obtaining primary cultures from these pulps. Variability between the various cultures was also observed in t he reliability of maintaining subcultures of the primary cultures as w ell as recovery from frozen stocks of established cell lines. Of the o riginal 49 explant cultures studied, only three survived long-term pas sage and freezing. In addition to difficulties and variability in esta blishing cell lines, the human pulp fibroblasts also showed great vari ability in proliferative activity which could not be accounted for by donor age, source, or passage number. These findings highlight signifi cant difficulties in establishing reliable human pulp fibroblast cultu res and the need for great care in interpreting any in vitro data.