OR30 - How Age Affects Oral Wound Healing, a Gene Expression and Pathway Analysis Study

Abstract: There is a general understanding of the effect aging has on the body, namely wound healing. However, little is known about the role aging plays at the cellular level. Immediately after a traumatic procedure, fibroblasts are activated to rebuild the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is later remodeled through the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Gene expression may be altered in gingival fibroblasts of elderly patients. These differentially expressed genes (DEGs) may have effects on inflammation, immune recruitment, and deficiency in matrix formation and composition. Soft tissue was profiled from a 35-year-old and a 68-year-old healthy patient at the time of a single atraumatic posterior extraction. Two weeks post-extraction, a second sample was taken from the healing site. Cells were profiled, and gene expressions measured using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), a novel method for analyzing the gene expression of individual cells. DEGs will be used to identify distinct biological pathways for each patient via pathway enrichment analysis using QIAGEN’s Ingenuity Pathway Analysis tool. Preliminary data are currently being analyzed, with more subjects planned to be added to the analysis pool. It is hypothesized that elder patients will demonstrate a longer period of inflammation, with a more prolonged healing period in comparison to a younger patient. This is a pilot study to help glean information on wound healing pathways and targets that can then be applied to modern endodontic microsurgical procedure concepts. Final conclusions have not been drawn yet.