The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of periodontal disease and the relationship between the subjective periodontal symptoms and the actual periodontal condition in Japanese teenagers.The examination was carried out in two parts. In tht first, a questionnaire concerning periodontal disease was conducted on 4, 292 junior and senior high school students (12 to 18 year of age) living in Kawagoe, Japan. The quetionnaire mainly inquired into typical periodontal subjective symptoms. Secondly, pocket depth was measured by the circumferential method on those 1, 333 individuals who had one or more subjective periodontal symptoms.The following results were obtained:1. Of those students examined for pocket depth 10.0% showed a depth of 4mm or greater. Whereas, this percentage is only 3.1 for the general population in this age range. There was a significant difference between two groups in terms of gingival swelling, gingival bleeding on tooth brushing, feeling of malaise in the mouth, foul breath, and diagnosis of periodontal dise-

Because a general study of activated neutrophils may have relevance to periodontal diseases and accompanying inflammation, we studied a function of mouse polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) that exude into the peritoneal cavity in response to inflammation caused by i.p. injection of 2% casein. The effects of E. coli-lipopolysaccharide (E-LPS) and a chemotactic factor, N-formyl-N-methionyl-N-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (FMLP), on the level of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) in these PMNs were examined. From analysis made with a laser cytometer (ACAS 570), the PMNs in exudates harvested 3-9 h after the onset of inflammation were shown to undergo [Ca2+]i elevation in response to 10(-6) M FMLP. The peak concentration of [Ca2+]i elicited by FMLP was highest in exudate cells 6 h after casein injection. In addition, about 65% of the PMNs in the 3-h exudate were FMLP sensitive displaying an elevated [Ca2+]i, whereas more than 85% of them in 6- and 9-h exudates became FMLP sensitive. Also, the maximum level of [Ca2+]i after FMLP stimulation was potentiated by pretreatment of the cells with E-LPS (0.2 microgram/ml). The present study suggests that PMNs induced by casein injection and appearing in mouse peritoneal exudate at different times possess significantly different ability to undergo [Ca2+]i elevation, and different susceptibility toward a chemotactic factor, FMLP.

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