Age-related prevalence and characteristics of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in periodontitis patients living in Sweden

Abstract

Background: The presence of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in patients with periodontitis has been extensively studied for decades.Objective: To study the prevalence of A. actinomycetemcomitans in younger and older periodontitis patients and to genetically characterize isolates of this bacterium.Design: Data from microbiological analyses of 3459 subgingival plaque samples collected from 1445 patients, 337 ‘younger’ patients (≤35 yrs) and 1108 ‘older’ patients (>35 yrs) during 15 years (2000–2014), has been summerized. Isolates of A. actinomycetemcomitans were serotyped, leukotoxin promoter typed (JP2 and non JP2) and arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) genotyped. The origin of the JP2 genotype detected in the study population was determined.Results: The prevalence of A. actinomycetemcomitans was higher among younger than older patients and samples from the younger patients contained higher proportions of the bacterium. Serotype b was more prevalent among younger patients and the majorty of these isolates was from the same AP-PCR genotype. The JP2 genotype was detected in 1.2% of the patients, and the majority of these carriers were of non-African origin.Conslusions: For presence and charcteristics of A. actinomycetemcomitans in clinical samples the age of the carriers were a discriminating factor. Additional, apparently non-African carriers of the JP2 genotype of A. actinomycetemcomitans were identified.

Virulence and Pathogenicity Properties of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

“…The presence of the JP2 genotype is highly associated to adolescents of North and West African origin [31,36]. However, the JP2 genotype has recently been shown to also colonize individuals of other geographic origin, as confirmed by genotyping [37,38]. Alterations in the ltx promoter region are the most studied genotypes associated with enhanced LtxA expression.…”

Aggregatibacter Actinomycetemcomitans: Clinical Significance of a Pathobiont Subjected to Ample Changes in Classification and Nomenclature

“…The bacterial clone is endemically present in Moroccan and Ghanaian populations [12,101] and almost exclusively detected among individuals of African origin [37,102]. However, among 17 JP2 clone carriers, living in Sweden and identified during 2000-2014, ten were of Scandinavian heritage [31]. Among six of the identified JP2 clone carriers, three were of Swedish origin.…”

“…St(a), St(b), and St(c) are globally dominant [26], but the distribution may vary according to ethnicity and geography. In Scandinavia, the three dominant serotypes are equally prevalent, while predominance of St(c) is observed in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese populations [27][28][29][30][31]; a noticeable high prevalence of St(e) has been reported among Japanese periodontitis patients [32]. Assessment of serotype-specific antibodies supports these findings, as all early-onset periodontitis patients from Turkey and Brazil had elevated antibody levels to St(c) and St(a), while St(b) levels were higher in the US [33,34].…”

Insights into the study and origin of the citrullinome in rheumatoid arthritis

“…Aa is a periodontal pathogen associated with severe forms of periodontitis, [117][118][119][120][121] both localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP) and chronic periodontitis. 117,118,[122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131] In contrast to other oral bacteria, Aa has a unique capacity to induce neutrophil hypercitrullination, suggesting a potential role of this bacterium in generating the periodontal citrullinome. 72 Similar to host-immune pore-forming pathways, Aa hyperactivates PADs by inducing membranolytic damage on neutrophils.…”