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(American Journal of Pathology. 2001;158:1391-1398.)
© 2001 American Society for Investigative Pathology

Regular Articles

Elevated Proportion of Natural Killer T Cells in Periodontitis Lesions

A Common Feature of Chronic Inflammatory Diseases

Kazuhisa Yamazaki, Yutaka Ohsawa and Hiromasa Yoshie

From the Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan

Although periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by a group of so-called periodontopathic bacteria, autoimmune mechanisms have also been implicated in the disease process. Recently, a unique subset of lymphocytes designated natural killer (NK) T cells expressing the V{alpha}24J{alpha}Q invariant T cell receptor (TCR) has been reported to have a regulatory role in certain autoimmune diseases. Therefore, we investigated the proportion of the invariant V{alpha}24J{alpha}Q TCR within the V{alpha}24 T cell population in periodontitis lesions and gingivitis lesions using single-strand conformation polymorphism methodology. NK T cells were identified with a specific J{alpha}Q probe whereas the total V{alpha}24 TCR was identified using an internal C{alpha} probe. NK T cells were a significant proportion of the total V{alpha}24 population both in periodontitis lesions and to a lesser extent in gingivitis lesions but not in the peripheral blood of either periodontitis patients or nondiseased controls. Using immunohistochemistry, some of V{alpha}24+ cells in the periodontitis lesions seemed to associate with CD1d+ cells, which are specific antigen-presenting cells for NK T cells. Although the mechanism underlying the elevation of NK T cells in periodontitis and in gingivitis lesions remains unclear, it can be postulated that NK T cells are recruited to a play regulatory role in the immune response to bacterial infection.




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