Journal of Dental Research, Vol 55, 177-181, Copyright © 1976 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
Collagenolytic activity of crevicular fluid from pericoronal gingival flaps
L. M. Golub, S. Kennett, H. McEwan, J. B. Curran and N. S. Ramamurthy
Fluids from normal and inflamed gingival flap tissues, overlying partially
erupted lower third molars, were incubated on reconstituted collagen gels
and examined for collagenase activity. Collagenase activity was observed
only in fluids originating from tissues with pericoronitis. However, when
fluids from clinically normal tissues were treated with NaSCN, some also
showed collagenase activity. Only the fluids from normal-looking tissues
with a history of pericoronitis showed collagenase activity after NSCN
treatment. No enzyme activity was observed in treated or untreated fluids
from normal tissue from patients with no history of pericoronitis. It was
concluded that the fluid collagenase activity originated from the adjacent
gingival tissue because (1) the activity of the untreated fluid observed in
this study seemed to parallel the acitivity of the adjacent gingival
tissue, based on our observations in a previous study; (2) NaSCN affected
the fluid collagenase in the same way that others found it to affect
gingival tissue collagenase; and (3) the disc gel electrophoretic pattern
of the breakdown products of collagen produced by the GCF enzyme was
similar to that produced by gingival tissue collagenase and differed from
that produced by a bacterial collagenase reported to exist in human
gingival fluid.
