title: Smoking and gingivitis: focus on inducible nitric oxide synthase, nitric oxide and basic fibroblast growth factor.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Periodontal disease pathogenesis has been associated with smoking. Gingivitis is a mild and reversible form of periodontal disease and it tends to progress to periodontitis only in susceptible individuals. In the present study, we aimed to examine the impact of smoking on host responses in gingivitis and to evaluate and compare the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity in gingival tissue and NO and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) levels in the gingival crevicular fluid of patients with gingivitis and healthy individuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one participants were assigned to the gingivitis-smoker (n = 13), gingivitis (n = 13), healthy-smoker (n = 7) and healthy groups (n = 8). Clinical indices were recorded; gingival biopsy and gingival crevicular fluid samples were obtained from papillary regions. iNOS expression was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. The immunoreactive cells were semiquantitatively assessed. For the quantitative determination of nitrite and nitrate in gingival crevicular fluid, the NO assay kit was used. The amount of bFGF in gingival crevicular fluid was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The gingivitis-smoker group demonstrated a stronger iNOS expression than the non-smoker gingivitis group. iNOS expression intensity was lower in the non-smoker healthy group compared to that in healthy-smokers. No significant gingival crevicular fluid NO and bFGF level changes were observed between groups. Among patients with gingivitis, a positive correlation was detected between gingival crevicular fluid NO and bFGF levels (r = 0.806, p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that smoking has significant effects on iNOS expression but not on gingival crevicular fluid NO or bFGF levels in healthy and patients with gingivitis. However, our results suggest that bFGF might be involved in the regulation of NO production via iNOS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Özdemir
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Özmeric
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elgün
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barış
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005881:Gingiva / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D005883:Gingival Crevicular Fluid / Q000737:chemistry; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II / Q000378:metabolism*; D017622:Periodontal Attachment Loss; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010514:Periodontal Pocket; D012907:Smoking / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II
keywords: fibroblast growth factor; gingivitis; nitric oxide; nitric oxide synthase; smoking