Expression of advanced glycation end products and receptors in gingival tissues of patients with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus-associated periodontitis

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are known to accumulate in the periodontal tissues of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Through this study, we aimed to investigate the distribution of AGEs and the receptor of AGEs (RAGE) in the gingival tissues of patients with chronic periodontitis with and without non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gingival biopsy samples from 13 patients with both NIDDM and periodontitis and 6 patients with both non-DM (NDM) and periodontitis were collected. The tissue sections were processed using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining to detect the distributions of AGEs and RAGE. Spearman correlation coefficients of all samples were calculated ( P < 0.05) for the AGE and RAGE rankings of the following clinical parameters: plaque score (PI), probing depth (PD), bleeding on probing (BOP), and tooth loss (TL).

RESULTS: IHC analysis revealed that AGEs among patients with NIDDM had a significantly higher ranking than those of the NDM group ( P < 0.05). Positive staining for RAGE was observed in both groups but was not significantly different ( P > 0.05). A positive correlation between AGE ranking and TL was observed in the NIDDM group, but not between AGE ranking and PI, PD, or BOP. The distribution of RAGE was not correlated with PI, PD, BOP, or TL.

CONCLUSION: AGEs were particularly distributed in the highly inflamed gingiva of patients with NIDDM-associated periodontitis and was statistically correlated with the long-term parameter TL.