Antibody responses to Porphyromonas gingivalis infection in a murine abscess model - involvement of gingipains and responses to re-infection

Background: Porphyromonas gingivalis is one of the most important periodontopathogens. It produces cysteine proteinases named gingipains. We previously examined the effect of gingipains on abscess formation in a murine model. The rgpA rgpB double and kgp mutants induced smaller abscesses than the wild type. Moreover, the rgpA rgpB kgp triple (gingipain‐null) mutant hardly showed lesion formation at all under the experimental conditions used, indicating that genes encoding gingipains are important for P. gingivalis virulence. Objectives: Here, we further report the humoral immune responses induced by P. gingivalis strains. Methods: After the lesions were apparently cured, sera were collected from the mice and immunoglobulin G (IgG) responses against the whole cell antigens of wild‐type P. gingivalis were measured. Results: Wild‐type strain was found to induce a strong antibody reaction. On the other hand, the rgpA rgpB kgp triple and kgp mutants induced significantly lower antibody responses compared to the wild type. Western blotting analysis confirmed the differences in antibody production. Next, these mice were re‐infected with wild‐type strain. Mice that were first infected with wild‐type strain showed significantly smaller lesion formation than control mice that were first infected with medium only. On the other hand, mice that were first infected with mutant strains devoid of gingipain activities did not show resistance to re‐infection and immunoglobulins directed against gingipains may be protective. Conclusions: These results suggest that gingipains play an important role in abscess formation in mice, and humoral immune responses seem to be partly responsible for the resistance to re‐infection by P. gingivalis.