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Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5792-5798, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Invasion of Human Coronary Artery Cells by Periodontal Pathogens

Brian R. Dorn,1 William A. Dunn Jr.,2 and Ann Progulske-Fox1,*

Department of Oral Biology and Periodontal Disease Research Center, College of Dentistry,1 and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine,2 University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610

Received 26 May 1999/Returned for modification 1 July 1999/Accepted 30 July 1999

There is an emerging paradigm shift from coronary heart disease having a purely hereditary and nutritional causation to possibly having an infectious etiology. Recent epidemiological studies have shown a correlation between periodontal disease and coronary heart disease. However, to date, there is minimal information as to the possible disease mechanisms of this association. It is our hypothesis that invasion of the coronary artery cells by oral bacteria may start and/or exacerbate the inflammatory response in atherosclerosis. Since a few periodontal pathogens have been reported to invade oral epithelial tissues, we tested the ability of three putative periodontal pathogens---Eikenella corrodens, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Prevotella intermedia---to invade human coronary artery endothelial cells and coronary artery smooth muscle cells. In this study we demonstrate by an antibiotic protection assay and electron microscopy that specific species and strains invade coronary artery cells at a significant level. Actin polymerization and eukaryotic protein synthesis in metabolically active cells were required since the corresponding inhibitors nearly abrogated invasion. Many intracellular P. gingivalis organisms were seen to be present in multimembranous vacuoles resembling autophagosomes by morphological analysis. This is the first report of oral microorganisms invading human primary cell cultures of the vasculature.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Oral Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608. Phone: (352) 846-0770. Fax: (352) 392-2361. E-mail: apfox{at}dental.ufl.edu.

Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5792-5798, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 1999 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.