Transmission and persistence of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in twins with advanced periodontitis

The arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction technique (AP-PCR) was used to fingerprint Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis isolates in 44-year-old African American male and female twins who had not lived in the same household for 26 years. Both twins exhibited severe loss of periodontal attachment on several maxillary and mandibular teeth. All isolates of A. actinomycetemcomitans yielded the same AP-PCR banding pattern, whereas the P. gingivalis isolates from each twin showed different AP-PCR profiles. The finding of the same amplitype of A. actinomycetemcomitans in both twins suggests a single source of the organism and possibly a persistence of the organism in each twin for at least 26 years.