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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Isolation, Characterization and Functional Examination of the Gingival Immune Cell Network
Published on: February 16, 2016
[Expression of human beta defensin-2 in normal and various periodontitis-involved gingiva]
Xu Zhang1, Rong Shu, Li-jun Luo
1Department of Oral Medicine, School of Stomatology, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200011, China.
Purpose:
To investigate the expression of HBD-2 peptides in normal and periodontitis-involved gingiva.
Methods:
Immunohistochemistry were performed for detection of HBD-2 peptides expression in gingival tissues from 11 healthy subjects,18 patients with chronic periodontitis and 9 patients with aggressive periodontitis. The data were quantitatively analyzed with a computerized image processing system. And the data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA with SPSS11.5.
Results:
HBD-2 peptides were expressed in all tissue samples. The expression of HBD-2 peptides were mainly confined to the granular and spinous layers of the gingival epithelium, in which HBD-2 was detected in the cytoplasm. Significantly higher levels of HBD-2 expression were found in healthy gingival epithelium as compared with that in chronic periodontitis among three groups(P<0.05).
Conclusions:
The results suggested that HBD-2 may play an important role as part of the innate host defenses in maintaining periodontal health.
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