Bone Abstracts

Introduction: Previous studies demonstrated that estrogen deficit in female patients causes inflammatory periodontal diseases. Sex steroids act by interacting with intracellular receptors located in odontoblasts, osteoblasts, gingival fibroblasts, and periodontal ligament cells. Inflammation in periodontal tissue is caused by excessive concentration of sex hormone receptors in oral mucosa.

Aim: Studying the influence of indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on receptor status of gingival epithelium in female patients with hormone imbalance.

Materials and methods: We examined 41 female patients aged between 18 and 59 (35.5±9.4) having hormone imbalance diagnosed with laboratorial enzyme immunoassay. Gingival status was determined with hygiene index (HI), gingival assessment (GA), papilla bleeding index (PBI), record pockets (RP), and Fuchs index. During surgical sanitation, the gingival area underwent standard tissue processing with hematoxylin-eosin technique and immunohistochemical examination both before starting complex treatment with I3C and EGCG and 2 months after the treatment. β-estrogen receptor detection was performed in a single-step method with epitope retrieval on paraffin sections using diagnostic kits by Dako (Denmark); proliferative activity (Ki67) of gingival epithelium cells was determined as the average of marked nuclei number in each 100 examined.

Results: Decreased histiolymphocytic infiltration of gingival epithelium, reduced edema and homogeneity of connective stroma in proper mucous plate, collagen fiber fascicles became more clearly defined and better oriented, the number of microhemorrhage foci decreased. Gingival status before and after treatment is correspondingly: HI 12.4±7.9/18.6±10.2; GA 1.2±0.7/0.5±0.3; PBI 1.9±0.7/1.5±0.5; RP 3.9±0.7/3.5±0.6; Fuchs index 0.67±0.08/0.71±0.06. The percentage of cells in gingival epithelium, expressing β-estrogen receptors (50.0±16.7%/17.5±5.8%) and Ki67 (20.0±10.7/5.2±2.6), decreased significantly.

Conclusion: A I3C and EGCG in complex treatment of gingival inflammatory diseases in female patients with gynecological pathologies improve periodontal status indices, decreasing the number of β-estrogen receptors and gingival epithelium Ki67.