Modulation of Host PGE Secretion as a Determinant of Periodontal Disease Expression.

An increasing body of evidence supports the concept that host-produced PGE mediates much of the tissue destruction that occurs in periodontal disease. PGE levels within the crevicular fluid can serve as a static assessment of ongoing disease activity; i.e., rate of attachment loss and bone resorption. New insights into the mechanisms that regulate PGE synthesis provide an altered paradigm of periodontal disease which places the emphasis on host response, rather than the bacterial etiology, as the principal determinant of disease expression. We describe a PGE host response model as a hypothetical framework to discuss new, possible explanations for host susceptibility to periodontal disease. J Periodontol 1993;64:432-444.