Green Tea Tames Periodontal Inflammation

OKAYAMA, JapanScientists from the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine have reported study results showing green tea catechins added to dentifrice can prevent periodontal inflammation by decreasing gingival oxidative stress and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Their findings are published online ahead of print Sept. 23 in the Archives of Oral Biology journal.

They organized 24 male Wister rats randomly into four groups: the control group received no treatment for 8 weeks. A second group had induced periodontal inflammation for 8 weeks; the other two groups also were induced with periodontal inflammation for 8 weeks and treated topically (applied to gingival sulcus, the space between tooth and gums) with dentifrices either with or without green tea catechins daily for 4 weeks prior to the end of the experimental period.

Results showed all rats that were induced with periodontal inflammation experienced apical migration of the junctional epithelium, alveolar bone loss and inflammatory cell infiltration in the connective tissue subjacent to the junctional epithelium at 8 weeks; the control group showed no pathologic changes. Topical application with the dentifrice containing green tea catechins reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in the periodontal lesions to a greater degree than the control dentifrice at 8 weeks. The gingiva in which green tea catechin-containing dentifrice was applied also showed a lower level of expression of hexanoyl-lysine (a marker of lipid peroxidation), nitrotyrosine (a marker of oxidative protein damage), and tumour necrosis factor- (TNFa, an indicator of pro-inflammatory cytokines) at 8 weeks, compared to gingiva in which the control dentifrice was applied.