Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate links among cytokine genetic variants and generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAgP).
Methods: Thirty-five patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis and 85 healthy controls without periodontitis were included in the study. Probing depth (PD), clinical attachment loss (CAL), plaque index (PI), and gingival index (GI) were recorded as clinical parameters. Polymorphisms of IL-6, IL-10, IFN-gamma, TGF-ss1 and TNF-alpha gene were analysed using the polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primer method (PCR-SSP).
Results: No significant differences were observed for IL-6, IL-10, IFN-gamma, and TGF-ss1 cytokine polymorphisms, from the genotype distribution and allele frequency, between GAgP and healthy control groups. In contrast, significant differences were observed in the TNF-alpha gene polymorphism between GAgP and healthy control groups (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: Our data suggest that TNF-alpha (-308) may be associated with the development of generalized aggressive periodontitis. These results should be replicated in a larger and more diverse population of patients diagnosed with generalized aggressive periodontitis to determine of these findings are generalizable.