Peripheral blood neutrophils from periodontitis patients exhibit a hyper-reactive and hyper-active phenotype (collectively termed hyper-responsivity) in terms of production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) however the molecular basis for this observation is yet to be determined. Our objectives were to identify genes differentially expressed in hyper-responsive peripheral blood neutrophils from chronic periodontitis patients relative to periodontally healthy controls and use this data to identify potential contributory pathways to the hyper-responsive neutrophil phenotype.

Neutrophils taken from 4 chronic periodontitis patients and age/sex matched healthy controls. RNA extracted and subsequently hybridised in dulpicate on to U133A arrays.