Hepatocyte growth factor in saliva: a possible marker for periodontal disease status

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) acts as a mitogen, motogen, morphogen and anti-apoptotic factor for various kinds of epithelial cells. We previously showed that periodontal fibroblasts secreted an HGF-like chemoattractant for a gingival epithelial cell line and found that HGF content in gingival crevicular fluid was well correlated with probing depth, gingival index, and interleukin-1beta concentration. To examine whether HGF in whole (mixed) saliva would be a useful marker for periodontal disease status, we investigated the relationship between salivary HGF levels and clinical parameters of 65 adults (50 men and 15 women). Unstimulated whole (mixed) saliva was collected from each subject and the HGF level was determined with an ELISA kit. After sample collection, probing depths and bleeding on probing were monitored. Significant correlations were found between salivary HGF levels and the number of probing depths exceeding 4 mm (r = 0.541), the number of probing depths exceeding 6 mm (r = 0.683), the deepest probing depth of each subject (r = 0.558) and the percentage of sites positive for bleeding on probing (r = 0.511). These results suggest that salivary HGF may be a novel marker for periodontal diagnosis in screening tests.