1. ¹Institute for Microbiology and Hygiene, Charité University Medical Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2. ²Private Dental Office, Berlin, Germany
3. ³Department of Periodontology and Synoptic Dentistry, Charité University Medical Center, Berlin, Germany
4. ⁴Biochemical Pharmacology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

Correspondence: Professor RR Schumann, Institut für Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Dorotheenstrasse 96, D-10117 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: ralf.schumann@charite.de

⁵Current address: Pediatrics Infectious Diseases, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles 90048, CA, USA.

Received 3 January 2005; Revised 6 April 2005; Accepted 6 April 2005; Published online 5 May 2005.

Abstract

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease affecting the connective tissue surrounding the teeth leading to tooth loss. Pathogens associated with periodontitis interact with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to induce cytokines causing and aggravating disease. We screened 197 individuals suffering from generalized periodontitis for the presence of Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile of TLR-4 as well as Arg753Gln of TLR-2 in comparison to matched controls. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TLR-4 were elevated among patients (odd's ratio 3.650, 95% CI 1.573–8.467, P0.0001), while no difference was observed for TLR-2. TLR-4 SNPs were correlated with chronic periodontitis (odd's ratio 5.562, 95% CI 2.199–14.04, P0.0001), but not with aggressive periodontitis. This observation was confirmed employing a group of periodontally healthy probands over 60 years of age. These data demonstrate that genetic variants of TLR-4 may act as risk factors for the development of generalized chronic periodontitis in humans.