doi:10.1155/2010/327417 Review Article A Controversial Role for IL-12 in Immune Response and Bone Resorption at Apical Periodontal Sites

Copyright © 2010 Celso Martins Queiroz-Junior et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Periapical lesions are inflammatory conditions of tooth periapical tissues, triggered by dental pulp infection and characterized by exudation of immune cells to the affected tissues and production of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines. The inflammatory periapical reaction is mainly driven by Th1, Th2, and Th17 responses, and such polarization may modulate progression of the disease and expression of bone proresorptive cytokines. IL-12 is a potent inducer of IFN-γ production, which stimulates Th1 effector cells. Many evidences have shown a positive correlation between the bone resorptive cytokine IL-1β and the productio