Analysis of a Filifactor Alocis genotype and its effect on pathological progress in periodontitis

Sammanfattning: Background: Filifactor alocis is a gram positive, obligate anaerobic rod bacterium that has shown correlation to pathogenic events that may be linked to periodontitis. Previous studies have proved the presence of so-called “rtx” toxins in F. alocis that are similar to the leukotoxin of A. actinomycetemcomitans. The relevance of this gene in periodontitis is however unknown. Aim: The primary aim of the study was thereby to investigate whether the occurrence of Filifactor alocis carrying the rtx-gene affects the pathological progression of periodontitis or not. The secondary aim was to observe an eventual correlation between high loads F.alocis and attachment loss. Methods: Altogether 99 clinical samples taken from the gingival pockets of Ghanaian adolescents between the age of 10-19 were scanned by using PCR and gel electrophoresis. Thereafter the correlations were analyzed mainly from the point of view of progression by using Excel and MedCalc. Results: The highest significant value was shown in the group where correlation between the rtx- gene occurrence and clinical attachment loss progression existed (44%, p<0.05). No statistically significant values between the high loads of F.alocis and attachment loss were found. Conclusion: Our findings suggested the possible existence of a correlation between the rtx- gene occurrence and clinical attachment loss progression and thus supported our hypothesis. Thereby the primary null hypothesis was rejected. However, no correlation could be seen between F.alocis and attachment loss, which in turn did not support our secondary hypothesis.