Master's degree in Dental Science Program with specialization in Advanced General Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry.
J Oral Microbiol. 2010 Dec 21;2. doi: 10.3402/jom.v2i0.5784.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and periodontal disease (PD) have shown similar physiopathologic mechanisms such as chronic inflammation with adjacent bone resorption in an immunogenetically susceptible host; however, PD has a well-recognized bacterial etiology while the cause of RA is unclear. Some reports have indicated that an infectious agent in a susceptible host could be one possible trigger factor for RA, and it has been suggested that oral microorganisms, specialty periodontal bacteria could be the infectious agent (mainly Porphyromonas gingivalis). It has been reported that PD is more frequent and more severe in patients with RA, suggesting a positive association between both diseases. There have been reports regarding the detection of antibodies against periodontal bacteria while other studies have identified periodontal bacterial DNA in serum and synovial fluid of RA patients and have explored the possible pathways of transport of periodontal bacterial DNA. In conclusion, there is no question that RA and PD have pathologic features in common and there is strong evidence of an association between both diseases, but further studies, including experimental models, are needed to demonstrate the arthritogenicity of oral microorganisms.
类风湿关节炎（RA）和牙周病（PD）表现出相似的病理生理机制，如在免疫易感宿主中发生慢性炎症伴相邻骨吸收；然而，PD 具有明确的细菌病因，而 RA 的病因尚不清楚。一些报告表明，易感宿主中的感染因子可能是 RA 的一个潜在触发因素，有人提出口腔微生物，特别是牙周细菌可能是感染因子（主要是牙龈卟啉单胞菌）。有报道称，RA 患者的 PD 更频繁且更严重，这表明这两种疾病之间存在正相关关系。有关于检测针对牙周细菌的抗体的报道，而其他研究则在 RA 患者的血清和滑液中发现了牙周细菌的 DNA，并探讨了牙周细菌 DNA 可能的输送途径。总之，RA 和 PD 具有共同的病理特征，这一点毫无疑问，而且这两种疾病之间存在很强的关联证据，但需要进一步的研究，包括实验模型，来证明口腔微生物的致关节炎性。
