Adhesion of Porphyromonas gingivalis strains to cultured epithelial cells from patients with a history of chronic adult periodontitis or from patients less susceptible to periodontitis.
BACKGROUND
The present study aimed to explain the interindividual variation in periodontitis susceptibility by differences in the initial adhesion rate of Porphyromonas gingivalis to the pocket epithelium of these individuals, and/or by inter-P. gingivalis strain differences in association capacity (adhesion and internalization).


METHODS
Adhesion assays were performed on epithelial monolayers (cultured in vitro from pocket epithelium belonging to patients who were less or more susceptible to chronic adult periodontitis) using 11 genetically different clinical strains of P. gingivalis.


RESULTS
Both the disease category (less susceptible versus susceptible) and the interstrain variation were found to have a significant effect (both P <0.05) on the initial bacterial association. The chronic adult periodontitis group showed significantly more association of P. gingivalis when compared to less susceptible patients (4.2 x 10(6) versus 3.5 x 10(6)). Also, the interstrain variation was significant, with strains Pg 4 and 5 representing the least and best associating bacteria (1.8 x 10(6) colony forming units for Pg 4, 9 x 10(6) for Pg 5).


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that periodontitis susceptibility is influenced by both the interindividual differences in pocket epithelium (allowing more adhesion of P. gingivalis) or by the strain type by which the patient is infected (intra-species differences in adhesion capacity).
Quirynen
M
M
Catholic University Leuven, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Periodontology, Research Group for Microbial Adhesion, Belgium. marc.quirynen@med.kuleuven.ac.be
Papaioannou
W
W
van Steenbergen
T J
TJ
Dierickx
K
K
Cassiman
J J
JJ
van Steenberghe
D
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000382:microbiology; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003728:Dental Calculus / Q000382:microbiology; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004846:Epithelial Attachment / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005881:Gingiva / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D019214:Gingival Overgrowth / Q000382:microbiology; D005889:Gingival Recession / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017622:Periodontal Attachment Loss / Q000382:microbiology; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010514:Periodontal Pocket / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D016966:Porphyromonas gingivalis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D012703:Serotyping; D013223:Statistics as Topic