RELEVANCE OF IMMUNOGLOBULIN-G FC RECEPTOR POLYMORPHISM TO RECURRENCE OF ADULT PERIODONTITIS IN JAPANESE PATIENTS

Polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) phagocytic function has been shown to be impaired in some patients with periodontitis. PMN constitutively express members of two immunoglobulin G receptor (Fc gamma R) classes : Fc gamma RIIa (CD32) and Fc gamma RIIIb (CD16), Both receptors exhib it genetically determined structural and functional biallelic polymorp hisms, which have been shown to influence PMN phagocytic function, In this study, we assessed the relevance of these Fc gamma R polymorphism s to susceptibility to adult periodontitis and recurrence rate, The di stribution of Fc gamma RIIa and Fc gamma RIIIb genotypes of 100 Japane se patients with adult periodontitis during follow-up was compared to the distribution of genotypes in 105 race-matched healthy controls, No significant skewing of distributions of Fc gamma RIIa and Fc gamma RI IIb genotypes was observed between patients and controls, Notably, how ever, a significant overrepresentation of the Fc gamma RIIIb-NA2 allot ype was found in patients with disease recurrence (P < 0.05; odds rati o, 4.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.19 to 16.24), Moreover, the annual rate of recurrence was significantly higher in patients with the Fc g amma RIIIb-NA2/NA2 and Fc gamma RIIIb-NA1/NA2 genotypes than in Fc gam ma RIIIb-NA1/NA1 individuals (P < 0.05), Fc gamma RIla-R/R131 individu als also exhibited higher recurrence rates, though the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.06), These results suggest that t he Fc gamma RIIIb-NA2 allotype represents a risk factor for recurrence of adult periodontitis.