Porphyromonas gingivalis fimbriae stimulate bone resorption in vitro.

Our previous study demonstrated that Porphyromonas gingivalis fimbriae induce the expression of interleukin-1, a potent bone-resorbing cytokine, in macrophages. This demonstration suggested to use the possibility that the fimbriae may stimulate bone resorption via the generation of an inflammatory cytokine(s). The present study was performed to test this suggestion. The bone-resorbing activity was evaluated by measuring the area of resorption lacunae on bone slices incubated with calvarial bone cells taken from 14-day-old mouse embryos. Fimbriae at 0.5 micrograms of protein per ml stimulated the bone-resorbing activity significantly, and the effect was dose and treatment time dependent. Since it is well known that interleukin-1 and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor induce differentiation of osteoclast lineage cells, we examined the involvement of these cytokines in fimbria-stimulated bone resorption. Fimbria-stimulated bone resorption was abolished significantly by antisera against both cytokines. We observed by Northern (RNA) blot assay that both cytokine genes were markedly expressed in the fimbria-treated calvarial bone cells. Our present data demonstrate that P. gingivalis fimbriae stimulate bone resorption in vitro.