Polymorphism of salivary histatin gene and periodontal disease in the Japanese population.

Chronic periodontitis is a widespread and major dental disease. Recent studies have analyzed a possible relationship between polymorphism of several genes and periodontitis. Histatins are salivary polypeptides with fungicidal activities against Candida albicans and yeast and bactericidal activities against Porphyromonas gingivalis and Streptococcus mutans. Histatins are part of the innate defense of the oral cavity. We examined the frequency of the polymorphism codon 23 of the histatin 3 gene (HIS2 allele) in relation to periodontitis in the Japanese population. The subjects were 143 Japanese individuals, of which 63 were healthy control subjects and 80 were periodontal patients. We isolated genomic DNA from lingual mucosal cells and tested them for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The incidence of polymorphism was analyzed statistically by Fisher's exact test. The results indicated that the gene polymorphism at codon 23 of the histatin 3 gene was not associated with periodontitis in the Japanese population (p = 0.166). Rather, if at all, it appeared to be associated with resistance to periodontitis.