Periodontitis is considered a multifactorial inflammatory disease. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is an important part of the innate immune system and a protein of the complement system. Our aim in this study was to investigate the possible genetic association between three single-base substitutions positioned in exon-1 of the MBL-2 gene at codon 52 (allele D), codon 54 (allele B) and codon 57 (allele C) and periodontitis.
Methods:
Blood samples of 105 periodontal patient (52 with chronic periodontitis and 53 with aggressive periodontitis) and 101 healthy individuals were used for genomic DNA isolation. MBL-2 gene polymorphisms were investigated using polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP).
Results:
We investigated the genetic variability of the MBL-2 gene at codon 52 (allele D), codon 54 (allele B) and codon 57 (allele C), in 101 healthy controls and 105 patients with a mean age of 33.34±9.8 and 29.12±7.71 respectively. The results for the allele and genotype frequencies in patients and controls showed no significant distribution difference except for the distribution of genotypes of the codon 52 in which the heterozygote genotype was significantly higher in controls (P=0.00) There was also a significant difference in allele and genotype distribution of codon 54 between aggressive and chronic periodontitis patients (P=0.037, P=0.030).
Conclusions:
There might be a relationship between these polymorphisms and periodontitis but further investigations are still necessary.