Inheritance patterns of localized aggressive periodontitis: A systematic review

Abstract

Inheritance patterns are traits/diseases that are passed from parents to offspring through genes. Elucidation of inheritance pattern of localized aggressive periodontitis may permit us to have a better understanding of the disease etiology, thereby allowing improved classification, diagnosis, and treatment of this aggressive type of periodontal disease. This review aims to determine the pattern of inheritance of localized aggressive periodontitis through critical evaluation of literature and to evaluate various genetic analyses for determining the mode of inheritance. Records were searched from various databases such as PubMed/Medline, Cochrane, and EMBASE. Articles published over the past 40 years (1972–2012) were identified using the key search terms. A total of 121 records were identified by title/abstracts and were retrieved. Potentially relevant reports identified from the reference lists of review articles and chapters were also hand searched. Eighteen articles met the inclusion criteria, and these studies were assessed independently for the methodology and performance. Each study was scored according to STREGA guidelines. Out of the various patterns of inheritance reported in literature, 38.9% of the studies supported an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance, whereas 27.7% showed X-Linked dominant pattern, 16.67% reported autosomal dominant inheritance, 11.11% reported a recessive mode of inheritance, and 5.56% showed dominant mode of inheritance. Thus it can be concluded that even though the inheritance pattern apparently shows an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance, the data are meager to conclude that localized aggressive periodontitis is solely inherited through autosomal recessive mode as there are various other factors playing a hand in the occurrence of the disease. Hence, it would not be erroneous to say it is multifactorial or may be largely inconclusive.