Detection of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans leukotoxin in patients with aggressive periodontitis and their families

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is a pathogen strongly associated with the etiology of aggressive periodontitis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) the presence of highly and minimally leukotoxic clones of A. actinomycetemcomitans in patients with aggressive periodontitis (AgP) and their family members (FM). Thirty five patients with AgP (33,9 ± 7,1 years), 33 FM (22,8 ± 11,4 years) and 41 patients with chronic periodontitis (CP) (44,1 ± 9,4 years) were clinical analyzed through plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), probing depth (PD) and clinical attachment level (CAL). Subgingival biofilm samples were collected from the interproximal periodontal sites (> PD and > CAL) of each patient and their microbiological analysis were taken by PCR, concerning A. actinomycetemcomitans was observed and its leukotoxic clones. The PD and CAL average of this sites were: AgP – 9,8 mm e 10,7 mm, FM – 5,3 mm e 4,6 mm e CP – 8,2 mm e 9,4 mm. Statistically significant difference was observed among the groups. The presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans was observed in 23 (51,1%) patients with aggressive periodontitis and in others ones, 16 (30,1%) with chronic periodontitis. Among them 37 (94,8%) showed minimally leukotoxic clones and 2 (5,1%) highly leukotoxic clone, one was AgP group, the other was FM group, also with aggressive disease. Concerning to periodontal status of the FM group, 30,3% had aggressive periodontitis, 36,3% chronic periodontitis and 33,3% were periodontally normal or had gingivitis. Among them 12,2% were A. actinomycetemcomitans positive. The higher values of PD and CAL were observed in aggressive periodontitis patients that were A. actinomycetemcomitans positive when compared with A. actinomycetemcomitans negative patients (p