Lymphocyte blastogenesis to plaque antigens in human periodontal disease. I. Populations of varying severity of disease

Abstract

Lymphocyte transformation in response to dental plaque antigens was used to determine the association between cellular immune response and the periodontal status in man. An in vitro system for lymphocyte transformation was used. Triplicate microcultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes were stimulated with four different concentrations of V. alcalescens, B. melaninogenicus, F. nucleatum, A. viscosus, A. naeslundii, S. sanguis and pooled plaque of human origin. Phytohemagglutinin served as a positive and saline as a negative control. The uptake of 3H-thymidine during blastogenesis was measured by liquid scintillation counting. 48 subjects divided into four equal groups of individuals with either normal gingivae, gingivitis, mild to moderate, or advanced periodontitis participated in the study. The subjects were all between 35 and 45 years of age. The peripheral blood lymphocytes of the normal subjects did not generally undergo blastogenesis with any of the organisms. However, when blastogenesis occurred in other groups, the highest stimulation was found in the advanced periodontitis group. B. melaninogenicus stimulated blastogenesis only in the advanced group. A. viscosus and A. naeslundii stimulated lymphocytes to various degrees in all except the normal group. All the other antigens did not show any differences in stimulations between any of the groups.