EFFECTS OF PORPHYROMONAS-GINGIVALIS CULTURE PRODUCTS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF PERIPHERAL-BLOOD POLYMORPHONUCLEAR LEUKOCYTES FROM PERIODONTITIS PATIENTS AND HEALTHY-SUBJECTS

The effects of Porphyromonas gingivalis culture supernatant from strai n W50, its avirulent variant (W50/BE1) and sterile BM culture medium o n the morphological changes in polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN) from 10 patients with periodontitis (3 juvenile periodontitis, 7 rapidly p rogressive peri-. odontitis) were compared with those from 10 healthy controls. Large non-polar cells (>160 mu m(2)) were increased in patie nts to 182.8% (p =0.0076) and 245.5% (p =0.0002) of control values wit h W50 and W50/BE1 supernatant respectively. In contrast, numbers of sm all non-polar cells (<80 mu m(2)) and polarised cells were decreased i n the patient group. Patient/control ratios for small non-polar cells were 30.3% (p =0.0007) and 33.6% (p =0.0005) with W50 and W50/BE1, res pectively, and 38.2% (p =0.0147) for polarised cells exposed to W50 su pernatant. The data indicate that PMN from patients with periodontitis differ significantly from those of healthy controls in the shape chan ges which occur after exposure to P. gingivalis culture supernatant.