Apoptosis Markers in Aggressive Periodontitis

The aim of the present trial is to assess the gingival crevicular fluid level of caspase-3 and apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) in Generalized versus Molar-incisor grade C periodontitis. The present study will be carried out on patients selected from those attending on the outpatient clinics of Department of Oral Medicine, Periodontology, Oral Diagnosis and Dental Radiology, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assiut.

Periodontal diseases are inflammatory disorders that give rise to tissue damage and loss, as a result of complex interactions between pathogenic bacteria and host immune response. Gingivitis is generally regarded as a site-specific inflammatory condition initiated by dental biofilm accumulation and characterized by gingival redness and edema and the absence of periodontal attachment loss.(1,2) periodontitis, a disease characterized by gingival inflammation combined with connective tissue attachment and bone loss. Aggressive periodontitis is a form of periodontal disease characterized by rapid attachment loss, bone destruction, non-contributory medical history and family history of the cases Apoptosis is a fundamental and complex biological process that enables an organism to kill and remove unwanted cells during development, normal homeostasis and disease. Caspases are proteins implicated in the activation and execution of apoptosis was identified in humans as being crucial for this process. Caspases 3 appear to be activated in a protease cascade that leads to inappropriate activation or rapid disablement of key structural proteins and important signaling, homeostatic and repair enzymes and is essential for some of the characteristic changes in cell morphology and certain biochemical events associated with the execution and completion of apoptosis. However, the specific requirements of this caspase in apoptosis were until now largely unknown. Apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) is a mitochondrion-localized flavoprotein with nicotinamide dinucleotide (NADH) oxidase activity is encoded by a nuclear gene. It has been shown to translocate from mitochondria to the cytosol as well as the nucleus when apoptosis is induced and mediate caspase-independent death because inhibition of caspase activation. Many authors view apoptosis as a process that is near-to-synonymous to massive caspase activation. The existence of a caspase-independent death effector thus does not fit the dominant scheme. During the last 2 years, several papers advocated the hypothesis that AIF is indeed a caspase-dependent death effector, meaning that the translocation of AIF from the mitochondrion (where it would be inert) to the nucleus (where it would induce apoptosis) would be caspase-dependent.