Detection of putative periodontal pathogens in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and non-diabetes mellitus by polymerase chain reaction

It has been assumed that there is a relationship between periodontal diseas es and diabetes mellitus, however the putative periodontal microorganisms i n non-diabetes mellitus (non-DM) individuals and non-insulin-dependent diab etes mellitus (NIDDM) patients have not been well studied. In this study. t he detection rates of 5 putative periodontal pathogens. Actinobacillus acti nomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Eikenella corrodens, Treponema denticola, and Candida albicans by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) between NIDDM and non-DM adults were compared. A total of 246 adults were randomly recruited and periodontal parameters including: plaque index (PII), gingiv al index (GI), probing depth (PD) and attachment level(AL) were recorded. S ubgingival plaque samples were collected by sterile curettes from the most diseased and healthy sites based on PD and AL. The differences in periodont al parameters and microbiological data in healthy and diseased sites betwee n non-DM and NIDDM patients were compared by chi-square analysis. The resul ts showed no significant differences in age, gender, GI, PII, PD, and preva lence of the 5 microorganisms between the NIDDM and the non-diabetic groups . However, except for A. actinomycetemcomitans, the prevalence of the perio dontal microorganisms tested was significantly higher (p < 0.01) in disease d sites than in the healthy sites in both groups. The PII, GI, PD and AL we re significantly higher in T. denticola positive sites than in negative sit es. The results suggested that P. gingivalis, T. denticola, E. corrodens an d C. albicans may play important roles in the periodontitis of both NIDDM a nd non-DM individuals, however the etiology of periodontitis: in both group s may not be different from each other.