Chronic periodontitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease, characterized by gingivitis,
and affecting tooth supporting tissues, forming periodontal pockets with associated
attachment loss, alveolar bone resorption. It is common in adults, but can also
occur at any
age. The rate of disease progression may be influenced by local, systemic conditions,
and/or environmental factors that alter the normal host response to bacterial plaque, and
affect the susceptibility to disease.It is suggested that periodontitis is partially associated
by genetic factors, that many genes are involved in inflammation susceptibility, mainly
include the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene that is implicated in bone metabolism and the
host immune response.
80 Syrian subjects were recruited for vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism study,
and allocated in two groups: 50 diagnosed with CP and mean age was (64 ± 0.722) years,
30 matched controls. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood cells, and genotyping was
performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and restriction fragment length
polymorphism analysis (RFLP) by using FokI enzyme.
By using Chi square test, no significant differences were found between the study
groups in the frequencies of alleles and genotypes at FokI position of VDR gene, age and
sex. These findings suggest that the investigated factors are not associated with periodontal
disease in this studied sample of Syrian population.