| Abstract: | Proliferative gingivitis was studied by electron microscopy. The crevicular epithelium adjacent to inflamed gingival connective tissue was primarily characterized by its relatively larger intercellular spaces which contained a variety of emigrating cells and granular precipitates resembling plasmic substances. Neutrophils and lymphocytes migrated between epithelial cells so that the intercellular spaces enlarged. The interruption of basement membrane was associated with inflammatory cells. Among the inflammatory cells plasma cells were predominant and displayed a variety of morphological characteristics. They consisted primarily of tightly packed, flattened cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) and a prominent paranuclear golgi zone. Fragments of cytoplasm apparently originating from the plasma cells were lying free in the surrounding intercellular space, in which collagen fibrils were impaired, disrupted and dissolved. All of these changes in plasma cells may relate to the synthesis and release of antibody. It is suggested that the inflammatory destructive features in connective tissue were mainly contributed to plasma cells. |
