Results of immunohistochemical study of markers of inflammation and apoptosis in gingival bioptates in patients with generalized periodontitis

Purpose of the study. Comparison of immunohistochemical indexes of expression of markers of apoptosis and inflammation in gingival bioptates of healthy persons and patients with generalized periodontitis. Research methods. 40 persons aged 32–45 years were studied. They were 30 patients with chronic generalized periodontitis of I-II severity and 10 persons with healthy periodontal tissues. For morphological examination, gingival bioptates were used, which were put into 4% solution of neutral formalin during the day and poured into paraffin. Histological sections with a thickness of 4.0–6.0 microns were applied to adhesive slides. After their deparaffinization and rehydration, antigens were demasked in the citrate buffer with pH 6.0 at 121°C for 8 minutes. The activity of endogenous peroxidase was suppressed with 3% hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes. It was studied cytoplasmic expression of markers СОХ-2, caspase-3 and intranuclear expression of markers MMP-1 and p21 (in inflammatory infiltrate), p53 and Bcl-2 (in gingival epithelium). Scientific novelty. At the present stage, the interest is to study the mechanisms of damage of periodontal tissues initiated by the microbial factor, which include direct cytopathic effects, in particular apoptosis and pyroptosis of periodontal epithelial and connective tissue cells. Conclusions. According to the results of the immunohistochemical study of gingival bioptates, there was no difference between the expression of markers of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 and the marker of apoptosis p53 in patients with generalized periodontitis and healthy ones. The most indicative markers of the course of the inflammatory and destructive process in periodontal tissues were markers of inflammation СОХ-2 and MMP-1 and markers of apoptosis caspase-3 and p21, that allows their use for diagnostic purposes in patients with generalized periodontitis.