Methods: We decided to conduct this work using a morphometric method used by Miller et al on human skin. These authors demonstrated that the number of fibroblasts present in the mid-dermis of human (aged 17 to 25) healthy donors was : 2100 ≤ n ≤ 4100. In this previous work conducted by Miller et al on human dermis fibroblasts a nuclear form factor was estimated at 0.35 < FF< 0.84. In the human gingiva, the nuclear shape of fibroblasts was similar to that of human dermis fibroblasts.
Results: With this morphometric method, we evidenced that the approximative number of human gingiva fibroblasts was about 19000 +/- 210, i.e about 9 fold increased when compared with human dermis.
Conclusions: This preliminary work will be completed by specific immunodetections to evidence and number other gingival cell types such as inflammatory cells (monocytes/macrophages, leukocytes) and vascular endothelial cells. We hope to obtain the mean number of these different cell types in the human gingiva, this being a prerequisite for a correct knowledge of a "control healthy gingiva". In the future, we hope to be able to reconstruct human gingiva tissue based on the skin model as tissue substitute in Man.