Aggregation behaviour of blood granulocytes in patients with periodontal disease

This behaviour was studied in 17 patients with severe marginal periodontitis and in 16 healthy controls. Aggregation induced by platelet-activating factor (PAF-acether), a potent mediator of inflammation, was significantly enhanced in the patients, whereas no significant difference was observed between patients and controls when aggregation was induced by the chemotactic peptide formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP). When the patients were subdivided into categories of progressive adult periodontitis, juvenile or post-juvenile periodontitis, aggregation induced by PAF-acether was enhanced in all three subgroups. However, FMLP-induced aggregation was slightly increased only in progressive adult and post-juvenile periodontitis, but decreased in juvenile periodontitis.