Serological investigation of various forms of inflammatory periodontitis

Abstract

Antibody levels towards sonicated wbole eel! extracts of selected oral Gram negative bacteria and Actinomyces viscosus were determined in sera from patients with various inflammatory forms of periodontal disease and from healthy control individuals. Antibody titres to two (non-leukotoxin producing) strains of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans were significantly elevated in patients with juvenile periodontitis. Adult patients with severe periodontitis had significantly lower IgG antibody titres to Veillonellaparvula {p<(i.001) or A. actinomycetemcomitans strain NCTC 9710 (p<O.OI) and patients with mild periodontitis had decreased IgM antibody titres to A. actinomycetemcomitans strain NCTC 30979 (p<0.05) when compared with the control subjects. Young adults with severe periodontitis showed marked individual differences in their humoral responses. Analysis of data revealed that only patients with a history of juvenile periodontitis had elevated IgG antibody titres to Bacteroides gingivalis (p< 0.001) and to V. par vula (p<0.0\). Hence the profiles of antibody levels to oral microorganisms identified patients who had previously manifested classical "localised" juvenile periodon-

Humoral immune response to Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis in periodontal disease

“…A strong local and systemic antibody response to A. actinomycetemcomitans has been adduced as an indicator of localized early-onset periodontitis (6,12,326). An association between the most severe and extensive cases of generalized early-onset periodontitis and the relative lack of antibodies to P gingivalis and/or A. actinomycetemcomitans has also been reported (114,134). This, coupled with the previously quoted findings that humoral responsiveness in generalized earlyonset periodontitis in terms of antibody avidity is depressed compared with that found in adult periodontitis patients and healthy individuals, suggests possible disease mechanisms.…”

Detection of immunodominant antigens of periodontopathic bacteria in human periodontal disease

“…A correlation between specific antibacterial antibody titles and the various forms of periodontal disease has been examined previously. Although elevated serum antibody titres were described by many authors (4,14,16,24) normal antibody levels (18,19) or even decreased antibody titres (3,4,12) have been also reported in patients with periodontitis when compared with healthy controls. One of the major difficulties in evaluating the antibody response in periodontal disease has been the antigenic complexity of periodontopathic bacteria.…”

Elevated levels of the IgG2 subclass in serum from patients with a history of destructive periodontal disease

“…Until recently, studies of the IgG subclasses in the serum from patients with periodontitis have reported that there were no detectable differences in the total subclass levels between patients with adult periodontitis (AP) (Mackler et al 1979;Reinhardt et al 1989), localised juvenile periodontitis (LJP) (Waldrop, Mackler & Schur 1981) and control subjects without either disease. Farida et al (1986) have estimated the levels of specific anfibodies to the whole cell extracts of P. gingivalis in patients with AP and LJP. They found that the IgG2 subclass levels were highest in patients with LJP but that patients with AP had IgG2 and IgGl antibodies in equal proportions.…”