Cell-mediated immunity in periodontal disease; cytotoxicity, migration inhibition and lymphocyte transformation studies

Cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with gingivitis or mild periodontitis were stimulated with ultrasonicates of Veillonella alcalescens to yield an increase of ¹⁴C-thymidine incorporation and of cytotoxicity against ⁵¹Cr-labelled chicken red cells. The cell-free supernatant from the antigen-stimulated cultures inhibited migration of guinea-pig peritoneal macrophages. In patients with severe periodontitis lymphocytes showed only weak transformation but strong cytotoxic and migration-inhibitory activity. These data suggest that cell-mediated immunity against an oral Gram-negative micro-organism plays some part in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease. The advanced stage of disease, however, revealed a dissociation between lymphocyte transformation and cytotoxicity or macrophage inhibition.