[Human gingiva in cell culture].

Human gingival cells, particularly epithelial cells of the gingiva, have rarely been cultured successfully. Indispensible are single-layered cell sheets which allow to observe certain cells of a cell layer over a longer period of time when testing drugs and materials. One possibility was described for the cultivatability of these highly specialized cells, the long-term culturing of which has seldom been successful. Intracellular storage of glycogen in the cultured cells was demonstrated to establish the metabolic activity firms the specificity of the cells.