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Isolation, Characterization and Functional Examination of the Gingival Immune Cell Network
Published on: February 16, 2016
Exploratory Analysis of Sex-Related Immune Gene Expression in Patients With Severe Periodontitis
D Dimitrov1, V Dosseva-Panova1, I Dimova2
1Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Medical University - Sofia, 1431 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Background:
Biological sex influences immune function and inflammatory regulation, but its molecular role in periodontal disease remains insufficiently understood. This pilot study investigated sex-dependent differences in immune gene expression in patients with severe periodontitis.
Methods:
Ten systemically healthy, non-smoking adults (five men and five women) with stage III/IV periodontitis were examined. Total RNA was extracted from saliva and analyzed using the nCounter® Human Inflammation Panel (NanoString, Bruker Spatial Biology, USA).
Results:
Among 249 immune-related genes analyzed, two showed notable preliminary trends of sex-associated differences: AREG was upregulated in males (log2FC = -0.67, d = -1.73, p = 0.03), and NOD2 was elevated in females (log2FC = 1.00, d = 1.36, p = 0.03), although these did not remain statistically significant after FDR correction.
Conclusion:
These exploratory results suggest hypothesis-generating trends regarding sex-dependent differences in epithelial repair and innate immunity, highlighting AREG and NOD2 as candidate transcripts for further investigation. These initial findings may serve as a foundation for future, larger-scale multicenter studies with sex-stratified designs integrating transcriptomic, hormonal, and epigenetic analyses to clarify how biological sex influences molecular pathways involved in periodontal inflammation.