Advances in understanding cell interactions in tissue resorption. Relevance to the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases and a new hypothesis

Abstract

Much of the connective tissue degradation that takes place in periodontal diseases is mediated by proteolytic enzymes. Previous studies have focused on the action of proteinases released by invading polymorphonuclear neutrophils and macrophages, and bacterial enzymes. In view of recent work establishing that resident connective tissue cells can be induced by cytokines to bring about the destruction of their own matrix, we propose a new hypothesis. In this we envisage that a critical step is the interaction of bacterial antigens with inflammatory cells, resulting in the production of a cytokine, interleukin‐1. Our interpretation of in vitro evidence is that the loss of connective tissue attac..