Porphyromonas gingivalis is an oral pathogen that has recently been associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis. The strength of the epidemiological associations of P. gingivalis with atherosclerosis can be increased by the demonstration that P. gingivalis can initiate and sustain growth in human vascular cells. We previously established that P. gingivalis can invade a...

The oral cavity is home to unique resident microbial communities whose interactions with host immunity are less frequently studied than those of the intestinal microbiome. We examined the stimulatory capacity and the interactions of two oral bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum), on Dendritic Cell (DC) activation, comparing them to the eff...

An 86-year-old woman presented with osteonecrosis of the mandible following bisphosphonate therapy for multiple myeloma, and underwent surgical debridement and multiple dental extractions. Histopathologic examination of the necrotic bone fragments revealed acute osteomyelitis with mixed flora and organisms morphologically consistent with Entamoeba gingivalis. In addition to oral scrapings and s...

Porphyromonas gingivalis has been implicated as an etiologic agent of adult periodontitis. We have previously shown that P. gingivalis can degrade the epithelial cell-cell junction complexes, thus suggesting that this bacterium can invade the underlying connective tissues via a paracellular pathway. However, the precise mechanism(s) involved in this process has not been elucidated. The purpose ...

Periodontal disease (PD) is one of the prevalent diseases in the adult population. The ethiology of PD has never been completely understood, however, loss of balance between the host immune system and the microbial virulence of PD pathogens may be considered the trigger of PD. In fact, the immune system, activated by microbiological agents, attacks the host and not the biofilm bacteria, causing...

OBJECTIVE Although the exact reason is not known, encapsulated gram-negative Porphyromonas gingivalis strains are more virulent than non-encapsulated strains. Since difference in virulence properties may be due to difference in cytokine production following recognition of the bacteria or their products by the host inflammatory cells, we compared cytokine production following stimulation with ba...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are differentially up-regulated in response to microbial infection and chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis. Epidemiological data support the idea that periodontal disease may be a risk factor for acceleration of atherosclerosis. Porphyromonas gingivalis, the etiological agent of periodontal disease, invades endothelium, has been detected in human ath...

Atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the blood vessels, is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality world-wide. Involvement of Porphyromonas gingivalis in atherosclerosis is supported by observations from epidemiological, clinical, immunological, and molecular studies. Previously we reported that P. gingivalis vesicles have a much higher invasive efficiency than th...

AIMS The risk of adverse cardiovascular events in humans is increased with chronic use of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors. However, the role of COX-2 in animal models of cardiovascular disease has been controversial. In humans and animal models, cardiovascular disease is increased by bacterial infection of the supporting tissue of the teeth, a condition known as periodontal disease. Periodo...

BACKGROUND P-113 (AKRHHGYKRKFH-NH2) is a 12-amino-acid histidine-rich peptide derived from histatin 5 that is highly degradable in high salt concentrations and biological fluids such as serum, plasma and saliva. Nal-P-113, a novel antimicrobial peptide whose histidine residues are replaced by the bulky amino acids β-naphthylalanine, causes the antimicrobial peptide to retain its bactericidal ac...