The Microbiologic Link Between Periodontal Disease and Heart, Vascular and other Systemic Diseases

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(Free-Press-Release.com) December 2, 2008 -- Studies involving almost 50,000 people in four different countries continue to verify the associations between periodontal disease and heart disease. Results show that people with periodontal disease have 1.7 times the risk of heart disease and 2.2 times the risk of death.
The culprit appears to be Porphyromonas gingivalis, the most common strain of bacteria found in periodontal disease, which causes blood clots and induces heart attacks when they escape into the bloodstream.

Chronic inflammation of the gums due to P. gingivalis also could be involved in arteriosclerosis, the inflammation of the blood vessel lining which leads to the buildup of plaque in the arteries and is the underlying cause of most heart disease. These same bacteria are also linked to infective endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves.

Periodontal disease also influences the progression of vascular disease. While smoking, hypertension, excessive lipids in the blood stream, diabetes and genetic predisposition remain major determinants of risk for cardiovascular disease, periodontal disease may rank above stress, sedentary lifestyles and obesity as a contributor to heart ailments. Since the major risk factors account for only 50% to 60% of the incidences of cardiovascular disease, chronic periodontal infection may be a source of frequent bacterial challenge to heart and brain vessel walls, accelerating the disease process.
The arterial wall is composed of three layers separated by an external and internal elastic lamina with smooth muscle in between: an inner endothelial layer called the intima, a second layer called the media, and the third called the adventitia, which consists of fibroblasts, collagen, and vessels termed “vasa vasorem” because they supply the nutrition to the blood vessel components.

When the endothelial layer becomes injured, the damaged endothelial cells develop wider inter-endothelial spaces. Injury can occur from smoking, which reduces the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen and produces endothelial cell hypoxia. Another cause of injury is hypertension, which increases blood pressure on endothelial cells, and hyperlipidemia, the primary mechanism related to lipid release into endothelial cells by low density lipoproteins (LDL’s) circulating in the bloodstream. These are indentified primary factors, but bacterium from chronic periodontal disease may serve as repeated sources of infection to that endothelium which has been conditioned by prior trauma.
Once endothelial cells have been injured, mainstays in the blood stream migrate to the area of injury of the vessel between endothelial cells. Along with smooth muscle cells from the medial layer of the blood vessel, these endothelial cells transform into foam cells. Cellular debris and cholesterol crystals fill the foam cells. This “core” of foam cells becomes surrounded by connective tissue forming the fibrous plaque we hear about in medical literature. The chronic nature of periodonta

cardiovascular disease     diabetes     heart disease     periodontal disease     stroke     systemic disease