Abstract
Abstract|Purpose: Inflammation of gingival tissue (periodontitis), affects both the gingiva and the supportive alveolar bone leading to tooth loss and other health risks. Studies have shown that chronic inflammation in some systems is modulated by TREM-1 and TREM-2. TREM-1 amplifies inflammation while TREM-2 functions as an inhibitor. This study aimed to analyze the expression of TREM-1 and TREM-2 proteins in situ, to determine the location of the cells expressing TREM, and if there is differential expression of these markers in normal versus inflamed gingiva. |Methods: Gingival tissue was harvested from the coronal area of extracted teeth, and processed for frozen sections. Tissues were bound to fluorescent antibodies against TREM-1 & TREM-2 and analyzed for protein expression using a fluorescent microscopy. |Results: Preliminary data from the immunofluorescence studies showed varied expression of TREM-1 & TREM-2 in oral keratinocytes. Moreover, TREM-1 expression was found to be slightly increased in healthy tissues, while TREM-2 expression was decreased in inflamed tissues. Conclusions: TREM-1 and TREM-2 proteins were expressed in each of the four test groups, both in the epithelium and in the connective tissue but at varying levels. In the control group each of the samples expressed the TREM-1 and TREM-2 proteins. Conversely, in the inflammatory groups there was a notable difference between the epithelial expression of TREM-1 (90%) to the expression of TREM-1 in the CT (37.5%). Noteworthy, both TREM-1 and TREM-2 expression was decreased in the CT. Comparison of the CT data for TREM-1 and TREM-2 showed increased expression of TREM-2 in inflammation and decreased expression in TREM-1, which is in agreement with the hypothesis. However, this result was not seen in the epithelial data. Further studies are required to specifically identify the variation in expression between varying cells. |Acknowledgement: Funded in part by Clinical and Translational Research Grant Program at Creighton (LB692).