Periodontitis prevalence and serum antibody reactivity to periodontal bacteria in primary Sjögren's syndrome: a pilot study

Bozo Lugonja, Lorraine Yeo, Michael R Milward, Diana Smith, Thomas Dietrich, Iain L C Chapple, Saaeha Rauz, Geraint P Williams, Francesca Barone, Paola de Pablo, Chris Buckley, John Hamburger, Andrea Richards, Ana Poveda-Gallego, Dagmar Scheel-Toellner, Simon J Bowman

1. to assess the prevalence of periodontitis among patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and comparator groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). 2. To perform a pilot study to compare serum antibody responses to 10 oral/periodontal bacteria in these patient groups and a historical comparator group of patients with periodontitis. Standard clinical periodontal assessments were performed on 39 pSS, 36 RA and 23 OA patients and "In-house" antibody ELISAs for serum antibodies against 10 oral/periodontal bacteria were performed in these groups. 46% of the pSS group, 64% of the RA group and 48% of the OA group had moderate/severe periodontitis. These frequencies did not reach statistical significance between groups. Raised antibody levels to P. denticola were found in the pSS, RA and periodontitis groups compared to the OA group. Significant between group differences were seen for A. actinomycetemcomitans, P. intermedia, and C. showae. None of these differences were specifically associated with pSS. This study showed no increase in periodontitis in pSS patients. Although the P. denticola data is of interest, identifying bacterial triggering factors for pSS will likely require alternative strategies including modern techniques such as microbiome analysis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.