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.