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PMID: 11023956 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Review

Systemic diseases caused by oral infection.

Clinical microbiology reviews ·Vol. 13 ·No. 4 ·2000-10-00 ·Pages 547-58

Li X, Kolltveit KM, Tronstad L, Olsen I

Abstract

Recently, it has been recognized that oral infection, especially periodontitis, may affect the course and pathogenesis of a number of systemic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, bacterial pneumonia, diabetes mellitus, and low birth weight. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the current status of oral infections, especially periodontitis, as a causal factor for systemic diseases. Three mechanisms or pathways linking oral infections to secondary systemic effects have been proposed: (i) metastatic spread of infection from the oral cavity as a result of transient bacteremia, (ii) metastatic injury from the effects of circulating oral microbial toxins, and (iii) metastatic inflammation caused by immunological injury induced by oral microorganisms. Periodontitis as a major oral infection may affect the host's susceptibility to systemic disease in three ways: by shared risk factors; subgingival biofilms acting as reservoirs of gram-negative bacteria; and the periodontium acting as a reservoir of inflammatory mediators. Proposed evidence and mechanisms of the above odontogenic systemic diseases are given.

MeSH Terms
Cardiovascular Diseases/etiology Diabetes Mellitus/etiology Disease Susceptibility Female Humans Infant, Newborn Infant, Very Low Birth Weight/physiology Infections/complications Mouth Diseases/complications Periodontitis/complications Pneumonia, Bacterial/etiology Pregnancy Pregnancy Complications, Infectious
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Li X
Department of Oral Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. lixj@odont.uio.no
Kolltveit K M
Tronstad L
Olsen I
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Article Info
Journal
Clinical microbiology reviews
Abbr.
Clin Microbiol Rev
ISSN
0893-8512
DOI
10.1128/CMR.13.4.547
Email
lixj@odont.uio.no
Published
2000-10-00
Pages
547-58
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8807282
PMCID
PMC88948
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/CMR.13.4.547 PMC Full Text View journal details
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