Purpose: To investigate the expression of FoxO1 and Runx2 in periodontal tissue and their effect during orthodontic teeth movement(OTM) in rats.
Methods: Forty 8-week old male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were used to establish animal models of orthodontic teeth movement and divided into 5 groups randomly. The right side of jaws of each rat was set as experimental side, and the left side as control side. At 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 d after orthodontic treatment, the rats were sacrificed and the maxillary bone containing the first molar was dissected. H-E staining and immunohistochemical staining were used to detect the morphological changes, the expression of FoxO1 and Runx2 of the periodontal tissue at different points. Computer image analysis was used to evaluate the expression of FoxO1 and Runx2 in the periodontal tissues of the rats. The differences were analyzed by using SPSS19.0 software package.
Results: The expression of FoxO1 in periodontal ligament was mainly in osteoblasts and cementoblasts; and the expression of Runx2 was mainly in osteoblasts, fibroblasts and cementoblasts. In the experimental group,the expressions of FoxO1 and Runx2 in the periodontal tissues of rats increased significantly, reached the peak within 3-5 days, then decreased. There was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group at 14th day (P>0.05), but significant difference was found between other group and control group (P<0.05).
Conclusions: FoxO1 and Runx2 play a role in the reconstruction of periodontal tissue during orthodontic movement of teeth, and they are mainly involved in the process of osteoblast formation and bone formation.