Study on the pathogenesis of periodontal disease in patients with Down's syndrome

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Patients with Down's Syndrome have been reported to be accompanied by severe periodontal disease. To try to understand the underlying mechanisms behind this, we assessed neutrophil functions in patients with Down's Syndrome. Additionally, patients with Down ; s Syndrome are known to suffer accelerated aging. From the viewpoint of premature aging, we evaluated regenerative capacity of periodontal ligament cells in aged individuals. The results of the study are as follows.(1) Neutrophil chemotaxis against FMLP,C5a and IL-8 was not impaired in patients with Down's Syndrome when compared with age-matched healthy subjects.(2) Periodontal ligament cells obtained from aged subjects showed shorter replicative life span as compared with those from juvenile donors.(3) Periodontal ligament cells from aged subjects showed less chemotactic responses to b-FGF as compared with those from juvenile donors.(4) Cells reached fully senescence did not express c-fos.(5) Although migrated cells expressed c-fos , there observed many cells which did not express c-fos in unmigrated cells.These results suggest that c-fos is necessary for cell migration as well as cell proliferation, and failure to express c-fos may be one of the reasons for low regenerative capacity seen in aged subjects. We conclude that impaired regeneration rather than low neutrophil function may be involved in the high prevalence of periodontal disease seen in Down's Syndrome patients.