CHEMICAL STUDIES IN PERIODONTAL DISEASE

X. PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF THE PUTREFACTION ASSOCIATED WITH PERIODONTITIS

¹ (Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University Dental School, Chicago, Ill.)

1. The major free amino acids in saliva collected by expectoration are lysine, glycine, alanine, glutamic acid and an uncommon substance which may be -aminovaleric acid. At least some of the other common amino acids are present, but in much smaller amounts.

2. Whole hydrolyzed salivas from patients with and without periodontitis do not differ in gross amino acid pattern.

3. Salivas from patients with periodontitis contain larger amounts of unidentified volatile amines and the substance believed to be -aminovaleric acid than salivas from normal individuals. It is probable that these are putrefactive products and not natural constituents.

4. These differences remain essentially the same during aerobic incubation in the presence of added casein. Most of the common amino acids appear but their concentrations do not differ between normal and pathologic salivas. In the absence of casein very little putrefaction occurs.

5. The evidence suggests that putrefaction takes place in the mouth only when adequate substrate, in the form of the exudate and destroyed tissue found in the periodontal pockets, is present.

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