Transmission of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans between Brazilian women with severe chronic periodontitis and their children.

This study evaluated the transmission of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) in women with severe chronic periodontitis and their children. Thirty women (mean age = 36.1+/-6.0 years) who were mothers of at least one child aged 7 to 16 years were enrolled. In order to investigate mother-child transmission of Aa, the children were also evaluated when their mothers were colonized by the bacterium. Subgingival plaque samples of each woman were collected from 3 sites (mean probing depth of 7.3+/-1.2 mm and mean clinical attachment level of 7.9+/-1.5 mm) and pooled in reduced transport fluid (RTF). These samples were processed, inoculated onto TSBV-agar selective medium and incubated at 37 degrees C in microaerophilic atmosphere for 5 days. Aa was identified on the basis of colony morphology, Gram staining, catalase and oxidase reactions. Aa was found in 8 out of 30 women. Therefore, 8 children from these women (mean age= 12 +/- 3.7 years) were evaluated, but Aa was found only in 2 of them. Aa strains of the two mother-child pairs were evaluated by arbitrarily-primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR), although it was not found similarity between the amplitypes of each pair. No Aa transmission was found between Brazilian women with severe chronic periodontitis and their children.