Abstract
A 5 year,5 month old girl who complained of gingival enlargement was referred to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Nihon Univ. Sch. of Dent. at Mastudo. The father of the patient had been treated for a similar condition in his youth, and had been observed in the family of the father the same disease.
A diagnosis was made of Hereditary gingival fibromatosis (HGF) which was based on family, medical history and histopathological evaluation.
This article is a dental and immunohistochemical study of the HGF patient. Dental studies investigated dental and panoramic X-rays, cepharometric analysis and the size of the primary dental arch, while histopathological studies were performed on the immunolocalization of the cell proliferate maker (PCNA) and the protease makers of the extracellular matrix (MMP-1) in HGF and normal gingiva using monoclonal antibodies. As for the dental studies, she was obtained about the same normal children.
The HGF patient was observed that PCNA positive cells increased rather more than the normal gingival epithermal and connective tissue (p<0.01 ANOVA).
However, MMP-1 positive cells were low immunoreactivities compared with normal connective tissue (p<0.01 ANOVA).
These results suggested that HGF revealed imbalance in the high epidermal cell proliferation and low pretense activity for ECM occurrence with respect to gingival tissue overgrowth.
