Oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and telomere length in patients with periodontitis.

Author: Masi S, Salpea KD, Li K, Parkar M, Nibali L, Donos N, Patel K, Taddei S, Deanfield JE, D'Aiuto F, Humphries SE.
Affiliation:
Vascular Physiology Unit ICH; Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy.
Conference/Journal: Free Radic Biol Med.
Date published: 2010 Dec 29
Other: Word Count: 209


The aim of this study was to determine leucocyte telomere length (LTL) in individual with periodontitis and controls exploring its relationship with systemic inflammation and oxidative stress.

METHODS: 563 participants were recruited for this case control study: 356 subjects with and 207 subjects without periodontitis. LTL was measured by a qPCR technique from leukocyte DNA. A global measure of oxidative stress (D-ROM) and antioxidant potential (BAP) were performed together with high sensitivity assays for C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Leucocytes count and lipid profiles were performed by standard biochemistry.

RESULTS: Cases had higher levels of CRP (2.1±3.7mg/l vs. 1.3±5.4mg/l, P<0.001) and reactive oxygen metabolites (378.1±121.1 UCarr vs. 277.4±108.6 UCarr, P<0.001) compared to controls. Overall, cases had shorter LTL respect to controls (1.23±0.42 vs. 1.12±0.31 T/S ratio, P=0.006), independent of age, gender, ethnicity and smoking habit. When divided by subgroup of periodontal diagnosis (chronic n= 285, aggressive n= 71), only chronic cases displayed shorter LTL (P=0.01). LTL were negatively correlated with age (P=0.001; R=-0.2), oxidative stress (P=0.008; R=-0.2) and severity of periodontitis (P=0.003; R=-0.2) both in the whole population and subgroups (cases and controls).

CONCLUSION: Shorter telomere lengths are associated with a diagnosis of periodontitis and their measures correlate with the oxidative stress and severity of disease.

Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.
PMID: 21195167

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