Defective neutrophil chemotaxis in juvenile periodontitis

Abstract

Neutrophil chemotaxis was evaluated in 9 patients with juvenile periodontitis, with normal subjects and patients with the adult form of periodontitis as controls. Defective chemotactic responses were observed in neutrophils from 7 of 9 juvenile patients, and a reduced level of complement-derived chemotactic activity was demonstrated in serum from 4 patients. These determinations were normal in all the patients with adult periodontitis. Serum from 5 of the juvenile patients contained a heat-stable, non-dialyzable factor that markedly inhibited the chemotaxis of normal neutrophils. Thus the characteristic tissue destruction seen in juvenile periodontitis may be, at least in part, a consequence of a failure of host defense mechanisms.