PERIODONTITIS AND CONCENTRATIONS OF THE CELLULAR IMMUNE ACTIVATION MARKER NEOPTERIN IN SALIVA AND URINE

Neopterin concentrations in diverse body fluids provide a well establi shed indication for activation of the cell-mediated immune system. Neo pterin concentrations were measured in the saliva and urine of 29 pati ents with varying numbers of teeth affected by periodontitis. While ne opterin concentrations in urine increased slightly but not significant ly in parallel with increasing numbers of affected teeth, salivary neo pterin levels showed a significant and positive correlation with numbe r of diseased teeth (linear correlation coefficient = 0.48, P = 0.012) . Additionally, when the patients were grouped according to the median number of affected teeth (20), salivary specimens of subjects with on e to 20 affected teeth showed significantly lower neopterin concentrat ions than specimens from those with more than 20 diseased teeth (P = 0 .0045, Student's t-test). In contrast, urinary neopterin concentration s did not differ significantly among these two groups. This pilot stud y suggests that salivary neopterin concentrations may reflect local im mune activation even in situations where no systemic activation can be detected. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.