an inverted microscope immediately after wounding and at 1 d, 2 d and 3 d. The wound areas were then measured and analyzed with the freely available image-processing software ImageJ 1.43. In order to determine the percentage of wound fill, the recovered wound areas at 1 d, 2 d, and 3 d were related to the wound areas measured at baseline. of the University of Bonn. The tissue samples were fixed in 4% buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin. In order to assess the presence of adiponectin, 4 mm thick tissue slices were prepared and immunostaining for adiponectin in the epithelial and subepithelial layers of the gingiva was performed. Briefly, selected sections were deparaffinized, rehydrated and rinsed with tris-buffered saline for 10 min. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked in a methanol/H2O2 solution in the dark for 45 min. Sections were blocked with 1% bovine serum albumin at room temperature for PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22179956 20 min and incubated with rabbit anti-adiponectin in a 1:50 dilution in a humid chamber overnight. Antigenantibody binding was visualized using the EnVision Detection System Peroxidase/DAB and slides were counterstained with Mayer’s haematoxylin. Immunofluorescence Oral epithelial cells were grown on coverslips and cultured for 24 h. Cells were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 15 min, washed in PBS and treated with PBS containing 0.1% Triton X-100 for 15 min. Then, cells were washed, blocked with 10% BSA for 1 h at RT and incubated with a rabbit anti-adiponectin antibody in a 1:75 dilution. After washing, cells were incubated with a Cy3-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG secondary antibody at RT for 1 h. For nuclear Immunohistochemistry Gingival tissues were derived from patients who underwent wisdom tooth extraction in the Dept. of Oromaxillofacial Surgery Regulatory Effects of Adiponectin staining, cells were treated with DAPI for 5 min. Finally, slides were washed and mounted with Mowiol/DABCO for fluorescence microscopic analysis. Cells treated with LPS and/or adiponectin for 2 h were processed in the same manner, except incubation with a rabbit anti-NFkB antibody. For quantification, all nuclei were counted in five fields of vision at a primary magnification of 406. NFkB positive nuclei were plotted as percentage of all nuclei. Actions of adiponectin on pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators in oral epithelial cells Adiponectin down-regulated significantly the constitutive mRNA expression of IL1b at 4 h and 24 h, as analyzed by real-time PCR. Moreover, adiponectin inhibited significantly the mRNA expression of IL6 at 24 h and of IL8 at 4 h. Interestingly, anti-inflammatory mediators were also subject to regulation by adiponectin: After an initial adiponectin-induced down-regulation of IL10 mRNA at 4 h and 8 h, the levels of this 
anti-inflammatory molecule were significantly increased at 24 h. In addition, the HMOX1 expression was significantly enhanced by adiponectin at 4 h and 8 h. In summary, these data suggest that adiponectin regulates the expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators in oral epithelial cells. Statistical Analysis Mean 6 SEM were calculated. One-way ANOVA and the post-hoc purchase BMS 790052 Tukey’s multiple comparison test were applied using a statistical software program. P-values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results Presence of adiponectin in oral epithelial cells Healthy human gingival tissue sections showed a strong adiponectin synthesis in oral epithelial cells, as analyzed by immunohistochemist