Anti-cardiolipin from periodontitis patients induces MCP-1 production by human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

AIM: Periodontal diseases are associated with a variety of systemic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and stroke, and patients with periodontitis demonstrate elevated levels of anti-cardiolipin antibodies. We sought to determine if anti-cardiolipin antibodies from periodontitis patients induced monocyte chemotactic protein-1 production by human vascular endothelial cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: IgG was purified from sera from 53 subjects, including chronic and aggressive periodontitis patients and periodontally healthy controls, with elevated or normal IgG anti-cardiolipin levels. In addition, anti-cardiolipin antibodies were specifically removed from some sera by immunoabsorption.

RESULTS: We found that, irrespective of diagnostic category, IgG from subjects with elevated anti-cardiolipin induced significantly greater monocyte chemotactic protein-1 production by human vascular endothelial cells than IgG from those subjects with normal anti-cardiolipin titres. Removal of anti-cardiolipin from IgG preparations from periodontitis patients significantly reduced their ability to induce monocyte chemotactic protein-1.

CONCLUSIONS: Since elevated titres of anti-cardiolipin are found in a significantly greater proportion of patients with periodontitis than in periodontally healthy individuals, and these antibodies activate endothelial cells to produce monocyte chemotactic protein-1, they may explain some of the associations noted between periodontal infections and systemic conditions.