title: Variations in crevicular fluid elastase levels in periodontitis patients on long-term maintenance.
abstract: Granulocyte elastase was determined in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of 18 periodontitis patients. They initially had similar severity of disease but had responded differently to 5-yr maintenance, 13 responders and 5 non-responders. A total of 102 sites were investigated and categorized as: i) consistently healthy, ii) healthy after treatment, iii) gingivitis, and iv) periodontitis, according to clinical criteria. GCF elastase activity was determined with a granulocyte-specific substrate. The sites from non-responders had consistently higher elastase levels than the corresponding category of sites from responders, despite similar gingival inflammation and periodontal destruction, with the exception of consistently healthy sites. Within the non-responders, the periodontitis sites had higher elastase levels than the gingivitis sites commensurate with probing depth, while no difference existed between gingivitis sites and sites healthy after treatment, despite a difference in probing depth. In contrast, in the responders similar elastase levels were found at the periodontitis sites and gingivitis sites despite difference in probing depth, while both diseased sites had higher elastase levels than the sites healthy after treatment, commensurate with probing depth. This study suggests that increased granulocyte-specific elastase levels in GCF may serve as a diagnostic marker for refractory periodontitis patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oral Sciences, School of Dentistry, Huddinge Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: P O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Söder
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Asman
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Söder
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puriene
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bergström
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015415:Biomarkers; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005883:Gingival Crevicular Fluid / Q000201:enzymology*; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000628:therapy; D006098:Granulocytes / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010196:Pancreatic Elastase / Q000032:analysis*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000628:therapy; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D017211:Treatment Failure
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D010196:Pancreatic Elastase