title: Salivary concentration of free LL-37 in edentulism, chronic periodontitis and healthy periodontium.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The antimicrobial peptide LL-37, a component of innate immunity, has an important role in maintaining oral health. This study aimed to investigate the concentration of free LL-37 in whole saliva of periodontally healthy, edentulous and chronic periodontitis subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Unstimulated whole saliva was sampled from 154 subjects (76 periodontally healthy, 20 edentulous, and 58 subjects with chronic periodontitis). All participants were in good general health. The salivary LL-37 was determined by ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median salivary concentrations of free LL-37 were 30.5, 22.5, and 1.8ng/ml for the healthy, the chronic periodontitis and the edentulous group, respectively. The differences in concentration between the edentulous and the others were statistically significant (Mann-Whitney test, p<0.001). In the healthy subjects, women displayed significantly higher peptide concentrations compared to men (Mann-Whitney test, p<0.05). The intra-subject variation in LL-37 concentration was wider for the healthy (range 0.75-285ng/ml) and chronic periodontitis patients (range 1-207ng/ml) than for the edentulous subjects (range 0.15-4.4ng/ml).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings show that edentulism correlates with a substantial decrease in salivary levels of free LL-37, thus indicating the considerable contribution of the gingival tissues in the secretion of the peptide in the oral environment.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology and Implant Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. sotiria@davidopoulou.gr
authors.forename: Sotiria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Davidopoulou
authors.forename: Eudoxia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diza
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sakellari
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Menexes
authors.forename: Sotirios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kalfas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D055113:Chronic Periodontitis / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000378:metabolism*; D005810:Multigene Family; D010519:Periodontium / Q000378:metabolism*; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult; D054804:Cathelicidins
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides; D054804:Cathelicidins