Gingipain Genotyping as a Potential Predictor for the Assessment of Periodontal Health and Disease Condition

Abstract

Oral hygiene maintenance is important to maintain optimal oral health. Oral health is affected by dysbiotic oral microflora in the dental plaque. Virulent factors of pathogenic organisms, such as gingipain, are responsible for tissue degradation and host tissue invasion in periodontal disease. We sought to investigate the distribution of gingipain genotypes (rgpA and kgp) of P. gingivalis in patients with chronic periodontitis and healthy individuals. The study included individuals positive for P. gingivalis, with 95 samples in the chronic periodontitis (CP) group and 35 samples in the healthy (H) group. We found that kgp-I and kgp-II types were prevalent in 67.36% and 32.64% of the samples in the CP group, respectively. In the H group, kgp-II was highly prevalent (97.14%). The rgpA genotype, type A was found in 78.95% and 82.85% of the samples in the CP and H group, respectively. The mean level of PD and CAL were increased in the presence of kgp-I and decreased in the presence of kgp-II. The mean level of P. gingivalis was increased in the presence of kgp-I and rgpA, type A. Our results show that kgp-I and kgp-II are strongly associated with disease and health condition, respectively.