Metagenomic and immune-inflammatory analysis of individuals with generalized aggressive periodontitis and their descendants

Abstract

Generalized aggressive periodontitis is a multifactorial disease related to several aspects that influence it installation and progression. A constant microbial colonization, an altered inflammatory response and a clear genetic factor are cited as possible factors associated to this pathology. Thus, aggressive periodontitis subjects could transmit for their descendants some genetical alterations, such as inflammatory response pattern associated to periodontal destruction and susceptibility to colonization by some pathogens, increasing the risk of develops this disease. This way, this project is aimed to evaluate the pattern of microbiological colonization and the inflammatory response pattern associated to it, comparing parents with generalized aggressive periodontitis and their children and periodontally healthy parents and their children. Thirty families will be selected and divided in two groups: Test group (n=15 families) families in which the parents (or at least one of them) present generalized aggressive periodontitis and one child (age ranging from 6-12 years old); Control group (n=15 families) families in which the parents (both of them) present periodontal healthy and one child (age ranging from 6-12 years old). The groups will be composed using a gender- and age-matched structure. The children will participate of a hygiene program and will be monitored for 3 months. All individuals (parents and children) will be clinically assessed for plaque and bleeding index, periodontal probing depth, clinical attachment level and gingival recession. During this period, samples of gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and subgingival biofilm from periodontal pockets/sites from all subject (parents and children) will be collected. The GCF will be analyzed and the detection of IL-1², IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-a and INF-g will be done using Luminex/MAGpix technology. In subgingival biofilm the DNA will be extracted and the microbiome and its functional characteristics will be evaluated by metagenomics and bioinformatics analysis. The data will be compared by Student's t test, Mann-Whitney e Wilcoxon tests. The significance level for all analysis will be 5%.