Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses to Oral Treponemes
Nicolas W.J. Schröder, Ralf R. Schumann, and Ulf B. Göbel
from: Pathogenic Treponema: Molecular and Cellular Biology (Edited by: Justin D. Radolf and Sheila A. Lukehart). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2006)
Abstract
Innate immunity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Toll-like recep-tors, a family of pattern recognition receptors recognizing a wide array of microbial ligands, are widely expressed on cells within the oral cavity. Oral treponemes exhibit at least two dif-ferent types of molecules within their outer membranes interacting with TLRs: lipoproteins, exhibiting a common triacylated lipid motif, as well as glycolipids, sharing structural simi-larities with lipoteichoic acid (LTA) of Gram-positive bacteria. Both compounds have been found to interact with TLR-2, inducing cytokine release. Since pro-inflammatory cytokines have been shown to exhibit worsening effects within the course of periodontitis, the interac-tion of TLR-2 ligands with the host may be regarded as an event triggering disease. Next to innate immune responses, oral treponemes are also known to initiate adaptive immune re-sponses though the production of antibodies. Since adaptive immune responses are initiated at least in part by dendritic cells also expressing TLR-2, the interaction of the host with TLR-2 ligands may be an important event for the induction of immunity read more ...
