Some effects of non-surgical therapy on gingival inflammatory cell subsets in patients with adult and early-onset periodontitis

Background: Limited information is available to determine if there is a distinction in local cellular immunity between adult and early-onset periodontitis. Furthermore, the effect of scaling and root planing on various lymphocyte subsets is sparsely described.Methods: Clinical measurements were recorded and gingival biopsies were performed before and after scaling and root planing in 10 subjects with adult (AP) and in 10 with early-onset periodontitis (EOP). The specimens were cut into serial sections and, using the alkaline phosphatase-anti-alkaline phosphatase technique, monoclonal antibodies to CD20 (B-cells), CD30 (plasma cells), and CD45RO (T-memory cells) were applied, as well as polyclonal antibodies to alpha, gamma, and mu chains (Ig A, G, and M). Areas showing the largest infiltration cells were counted.Results: Mean counts of all cell phenotypes in the AP versus the EOP group did not show any significant differences before therapy (P > 0.05). Following scaling and root planing, numbers of all phenotypes decreased in both groups. Comparing the data before and after therapy, P values were > 0.05 in the AP group, except for IgA-positive cells. In the EOP group, the differences before and after therapy reached statistical significance (P <0.05) for all cell counts, except for IgM-positive cells. Furthermore, reduction of probing depth and gain of clinical attachment reached the 0.05 level of statistical significance only in EOP subjects.Conclusions: Local cellular immunity in patients with adult onset periodontitis does not appear to differ from the immune response in patients with early onset periodontitis. Scaling and root planing causes a decrease in the inflammatory cells subsets tested, however, this decline seems to be more pronounced in EOP than in AP subjects.