Reactive antibodies in sera from pubertal and adult gingivitis patients against various Porphyromonas gingivalis antigens.

This study was undertaken to determine the immunodominant antigens from Porphyromonas gingivalis which reacted with sera from patients of pubertal and adult gingivitis. The patients with cultivable P. gingivalis and the patients without cultivable P. gingivalis were compared by immunoblots. Fifty subjects participated in this study: 20 with gingivitis, 20 periodontally healthy, and 10 with adult periodontitis. The groups with gingivitis and healthy periodontium each contained 10 pubescent subjects and 10 adult subjects. P. gingivalis was isolated from 9 of 20 patients with gingivitis and from all of 10 with periodontitis by culture study. Approximate molecular weight 43 KDa fimbriae antigen, 57, 53, 46, 28 KDa antigens from outer membrane, and 57, 44, 40, 18.5 KDa antigens from sonicated extracts of P. gingivalis reacted significantly more frequently with sera from the P. gingivalis culture-positive gingivitis patients than with sera from the culture-negative patients by Fisher's exact test. A molecular weight 75, 31 KDa antigen from outer membrane and a 46 KDa antigen from sonicated extract were immunodominant in sera from adult patients with periodontitis. These findings indicate that the specific antigens which reacted with sera from P. gingivalis culture-positive patients are markers of infection with P. gingivalis. Additionally, reactivity to antigens were slightly different between sera from patients with gingivitis and those from patients with periodontitis.