In pregnant women with periodontitis, non-surgical periodontal therapy significantly reduced levels of periodontal pathogens. Baseline levels of selected periodontal pathogens or changes in these bacteria resulting from therapy were not associated with preterm birth.

“Diabetes and Oral Disease: Implications for Health Professionals” was a one-day conference convened by the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the New York Academy of Sciences on May 4, 2011in New York City. The program included an examination of the bidirectional relationship between oral disease and diabetes and the inter-professional working relationships for the care of people who have diabetes. The overall goal of the conference was to promote discussion among the healthcare professions who treat people with diabetes, encourage improved communication and collaboration among them and ultimately, improve patient management of the oral and overall effects of diabetes. Attracting over 150 members of the medical and dental professions from eight different countries, the conference included speakers from academia and government and was divided into four sessions. This report summarizes the scientific presentations of the event.

Oral bacterial biofilms trigger chronic inflammatory responses in the host that can result in the tissue destructive events of periodontitis. However, the characteristics of the capacity of specific host cell types to respond to these biofilms remain ill-defined. This report describes the use of a novel model of bacterial biofilms to stimulate oral epithelial cells and profile select cytokines and chemokines that contribute to the local inflammatory environment in the periodontium. Monoinfection biofilms were developed with Streptococcus sanguinis, Streptococcus oralis, Streptococcus gordonii, Actinomyces naeslundii, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Porphyromonas gingivalis on rigid gas-permeable contact lenses. Biofilms, as well as planktonic cultures of these same bacterial species, were incubated under anaerobic conditions with a human oral epithelial cell line, OKF4, for up to 24 h. Gro-1α, IL1α, IL-6, IL-8, TGFα, Fractalkine, MIP-1α, and IP-10 were shown to be produced in response to a range of the planktonic or biofilm forms of these species. P. gingivalis biofilms significantly inhibited the production of all of these cytokines and chemokines, except MIP-1α. Generally, the biofilms of all species inhibited Gro-1α, TGFα, and Fractalkine production, while F. nucleatum biofilms stimulated significant increases in IL-1α, IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10. A. naeslundii biofilms induced elevated levels of IL-6, IL-8 and IP-10. The oral streptococcal species in biofilms or planktonic forms were poor stimulants for any of these mediators from the epithelial cells. The results of these studies demonstrate that oral bacteria in biofilms elicit a substantially different profile of responses compared to planktonic bacteria of the same species. Moreover, certain oral species are highly stimulatory when in biofilms and interact with host cell receptors to trigger pathways of responses that appear quite divergent from individual bacteria.

These results support the hypothesis that women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy may be at greater risk for developing more severe periodontal disease than pregnant women without GDM.

Dietary manipulation, including caloric restriction, has been shown to significantly impact host response capabilities, particularly associated with aging. This investigation compared systemic inflammatory and immune response molecules in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) on continuous long term calorie-restricted (CR) diets with a matched group of animals on a control diet, examining the effects of both gender and aging. The results demonstrated that haptoglobin and α 1 antiglycoprotein were elevated in serum of male monkeys. Serum IgG antibody responses to C. rectus, A. actinomycetemcomitans, and P. gingivalis were significantly elevated in female monkeys. While only the antibody to F. nucleatum was significantly affected by the calorie-restricted diet in females, antibody levels to P. intermedia, C. rectus and T. denticola demonstrated a similar trend. In this investigation, only selected serum antibody levels were influenced by the age in male animals, seemingly related to increasing clinical disease in this gender. More generally, analytes were modulated by gender and/or diet in this oral model system of mucosal microbial challenge.