part of part of capable of stratified epithelial cell ecto-epithelial cell epithelial cell of alimentary canal junctional epithelial cell 2026-03-24T10:46:30Z DAT cell gingival junctional epithelial cell cell of junctional epithelium An epithelial cell that is part of the junctional epithelium of the gingiva, forming a collar-like band around the cervix of the tooth. This cell attaches to the tooth surface via hemidesmosomes and an internal basal lamina rich in laminin-332 and ODAM (Gavriiloglou et al., 2024). The junctional epithelium is a stratified squamous non-keratinized epithelium ranging from 15-30 cell layers coronally to 1-3 cell layers apically. This cell expresses cytokeratin 19 (CK19) as a specific marker, along with ODAM and FDC-SP, and participates in innate immune defense by producing IL-8, IL-1alpha, and MMP-7, facilitating the transmigration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes through the epithelium (Gavriiloglou et al., 2024). This cell has a high turnover rate, with complete renewal occurring every 4-6 days (Lin et al., 2025), and develops from the reduced enamel epithelium during tooth eruption, although it can regenerate de novo without this precursor. JE cell innate immune response in mucosa gingival epithelium