The prevalence of peiodontal disease has increased two-fold amoung patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to the general population. This increased prevalence reflects shared pathogenic mechanisms, including an increased prevalences of the shared epitope HLA-DRB1-04; exacerbated T-cell responsiveness withhigh tissue levels of IL-17; exaggerated B-cell responses, with plasma cells being the predominant cell type found within gingival tissue affected with periodontitis and B cells being twice as numerous as T cells; RANK overexpression; and an increase in the ratio of RANK-L over osteoprotegerin with a high level of RANK-L expression on gingival B cells, most notably those capable of recognizing Porphyromonas gingivalis.
Read More