Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress in Periodontal Disease

Within periodontal disease a lot of processes happen simultane ously. One of these processes is the oxidative stress. In order to understand this phenomenon it is important to know what the free radicals (FR) are, where they come from and how they act. There is numerous evidence pointing to the involvement of FR in periodontal disease. It has been reported in patients with rapidly progressive periodontitis, that the polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) are functionally activated, produce high levels of O2 and have a high response to the luminol-dependent (QL) chemiluminescent. Products of this oxidative damage such as advanced glycation end products and lipid peroxide proteins can lead to further ROS induced damage by their priming and chemotactic effect on neutrophils. In periodontal disease ROS causes bone resorption, connective tissue degradation and an increase in the activity of metallo proteinases matrix. Our study results showed that the total antioxidant capacity in serum in periodontitis patients was significantly lower when compared to healthy subjects.