Possible roles of medullasin in nifedipine-induced human gingival overgrowth

Abstract In order to clarify a possible pathophysiological role of medullasin, a neutrophil elastase-like proteinase, in nifedipine (NF)-induced gingival overgrowth, the distributions of medullasin-positive cells immunostained in specimens from patients with NF-induced gingival overgrowth and chronic marginal gingivitis were compared in three different biopsy areas. Twenty gingival biopsies were obtained from five patients with gingival overgrowth and 20 biopsies from another five patients with chronic marginal gingivitis. In the marginal gingivitis group, the mean percentage of positive cells in the vicinity of pocket epithelium (zone I) was significantly higher than in the areas of connective tissue of the mid-portion (zone II) and adjacent to oral epithelium (zone III) ( p p p