Premium
Serum Antibodies to Periodontal Bacteria
Author(s) -
Gunsolley J.C.,
Tew J.G.,
Gooss C.,
Marshall D.R.,
Burmeister J.A.,
Schenkein H.A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.036
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1943-3670
pISSN - 0022-3492
DOI - 10.1902/jop.1990.61.7.412
Subject(s) - antibody , bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , dentistry , biology , immunology , genetics
T he purpose of this study was to determine how serum antibodies reactive with periodontitis‐associated bacteria with relates to the diagnosis of periodontitis subjects. Study groups included localized juvenile periodontitis (LJP) subjects, severe periodontitis (SP) subjects, chronic adult periodontitis (AP) subjects, and age matched controls. Twentytwo bacterial strains, representing 18 different species most commonly found in early onset periodontitis were evaluated using serum from LJP, SP, and age matched controls. Serum IgG reactive with these organisms was determined using a radioimmunoassay (RIA). Serum antibody reactive with 13 bacterial strains differed significantly ( P <0.01) between the three clinical groups. Discriminate analysis revealed that antibodies reactive with 5 bacterial strains of the 13 were able to identify the clinical group to which subjects belonged 79% of the time with control subjects being correctly identified 100% of the time, LJP subjects 78% of the time, and SP subjects 60% of the time. These strains included two strains of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (Y4 and N27), Fusobacterium nucleatum (E1D1), Eubacterium brachy , and Bacteroides gingivalis . The low classification rate of SP subjects suggested heterogeneity. The SP group could be divided into three subgroups using the serological data. One subgroup, with “super” severe attachment loss, generally lacked antibody reactive with these five organisms, another subgroup was serologically similar to LJP subjects, while the third subgroup had antibodies to additional organisms. This suggests that some SP subjects may represent a more advanced form of LJP. Comparison of antibody reactivity of AP subjects with age matched controls to 23 bacterial types revealed that mean serum antibody reactivity to only Bacteroides gingivalis was higher in AP subjects. The results of this study suggest that current clinical classifications can yield heterogeneous groups of patients and that serum antibody reactive with some organisms may help separate these larger groups into more homogeneous subgroups. J Periodontol 1990 ; 61 : 412 – 419 .