Scientists Investigate Link of Gum Disease to Inflammation and Other Conditions

A new study reveals how gum disease might worsen inflammation in any part of the body. The results help explain the link between gum disease and many other conditions involving excessive inflammation.

In gum disease, also known as "periodontitis," bacteria in dental plaque aggravate an immune system's attack.

This initiates inflammation, which grinds down the soft tissue and bone that support the teeth over time.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC reported that almost 50 percent of adults above 40 years old develop periodontal disease.

The study suggests that it helps to a "wide range of other conditions in which chronic inflammation plays a role."

Such conditions include heart disease, dementia, arthritis, cancer, and respiratory disease, among others. The mechanisms that associate these illnesses to periodontal disease remains unclear until now.

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The 'Neutrophils'

Experiments by the scientists in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto, Canada, have presented that gum disease primes blood cells, also known as "neutrophils," which then overreact to inflammation in any part of the body.

Essentially, the neutrophils, which are part of the body's innate immune defenses, discharge signaling molecules, also known as cytokines, that worsen inflammation.

According to Professor Michael Glogauer, the study's senior author, it is nearly "as if these white blood cells are in second gear" when he pointed out, they should be I first.

In addition, neutrophils are much more likely to produce cytokines much more rapidly, which results in adverse effects. The said study findings were published in the Journal of Dental Research.             

The Immune Response

When the study authors induced periodontal disease or infection in mice, it resulted in a production of neutrophils in the animals' bone marrow.

Consequently, as indicated in the research, the said result proposes a "widespread or 'systematic' immune response."

On the contrary, mice which had peritonitis, lab researchers describe, as "an infection of the peritoneum, the membrane lining in the abdomen," had increased numbers of neutrophils in their blood near the area of infection.

Nonetheless, according to a report on the study, mice used in the experiment that "already had periodontal disease when they developed peritonitis" had a considerably higher number of neutrophils in the area of infection.

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Healthy Participants Asked Not to Floss or Brush Their Teeth

After a thorough evaluation, the study authors found that neutrophils coming from animals that had gum disease and peritonitis had "molecular markers" in the outer part of their membranes, specifying they were geared up to cause inflammation.

Nevertheless, the mice which had peritonitis but not the gum disease had no neutrophils geared up in a similar way.

To identify if similar immune changes take place in people, the researchers asked healthy participants not to floss or brush their teeth for three weeks. As a result, they had a mild form of gingivitis, a mild form of gum disease.

When the study authors examined blood samples from the volunteers in the laboratory, they detected "neutrophils primed to cause inflammation," like the ones examined earlier using animals in the experiments.

After the participants went back to flossing and brushing their teeth, the neutrophils earlier identified in the blood went back to what's described in the study as a "less reactive state."

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