A Study on the Phosphoqipids in the Dental Pulp of Chronic Marginal Periodontitis

It has been reported that, in patients of the chronic marginal periodontitis, degenerate changes are found in their teeth and that thetreatment of periodontal teeth in which progress has taken place tends to be less successful. In particular, a poor prognosis is known in the amputation of vital pulps.The author and his associates have already reported on the identification of phospholipids constituting the dental pulp. In the present study, the author was concerned with quantative measurements of phospholipids in the periodontal and normal teeth in an effort to find out the metabolic change due to the chronic marginal periodontitis.As a result, the author arrived at the following conclusion.1. The dental pulp of man consisted of sphingomyelin, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, diphosphatidylglycerol, Lyso-phosphatidylcholine and Lysophosphatidylethanolamine.2. As regards control teeth, 19 in number, and those in which evidence of the periodontitis was present, the largest amount of pulp-constituent phospholipids was phosphatidylcholinc, followed in order by phosphatidylethanolamine, sohingomyelin, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylserine.3. In terms of different age groups, there was observed a trend of increased phospholipids in the control and periodontal teeth in proportion to chronological ages.As regards periodontal teeth having root canal rami, however, this trend was not confirmed.4. As compared with controls, the periodontal teeth and those having periodontal pulps with root canal rami were found to contain a somewhat smaller amount of phospholipids.