A basic research for use of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) for diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease.

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Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), also known as scatter factor, is a broad-spectrum and multifunctional cytokine and is shown to be involved in the development, growth and regeneration of various organs and tissues. The expression of HGF in human gingival fibroblasts in induced by inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1. Thus, it is possible that content of HGF in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) in periodontal disease is increased but this has not so far been reported because the volume of GCF is too small to determine HGF. Recently, we developed a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for HGF, with a detection limit of 1 pg/ml sample. Using this ELISA, we found that the mean HGF content in GCF from sites with clinically healthy gingiva was 1.7 ng/ml, and that of periodontitis was 3.23 ng/ml. Since the mean level of HGF in serum from healthy subjects is 0.2 ng/ml, our results indicate that HGF is synthesized and activated in gingival tissue. We confirmed that HGF is expressed by gingival fibroblasts and inflammatory cells by in situ hybridization. We also showed that HGF-activator, which converts inactive pro-HGF to active mature HGF, is expressed in gingival tissue by immunostaining and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. These results suggest that HGF may be useful for diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease.