The effect of obesity and periodontitis on the expression of antimicrobial peptides in gingival tissues

OBJECTIVE: To compare the expression of human beta-defensins (HBD) in the gingival tissues of obese and normal weight systemically healthy subjects.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 2010 to November 2011. Twenty obese (10 affected with periodontitis and 10 periodontally healthy), and 20 normal weight subjects (10 affected with periodontitis and 10 periodontally healthy) were selected. Gingival tissue samples were collected and subjected to immunohistochemistry assay to evaluate the expression of HBD-1 and -2.

RESULTS: In the epithelium, the staining was almost limited to the basal and supra-basal cells, while the superficial layers and keratin were negative. In the connective tissue, some of the chronic inflammatory cells and fibroblasts were also stained. Endothelial cells lining blood or lymphatic vessels were mostly positive with HBD-2 and were almost negative with HBD-1. The percentage of positively stained areas did not show any differences in the expression of HBD-1 and -2 in obese compared to normal weight subjects whether they were affected or not affected with periodontitis.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study did not demonstrate an association between the expression of HBD-1 and -2 and obesity and periodontitis.