Expression of caspase-8 in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease related to ligature-induced periodontitis in rats.

Abstract

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the oral and hepatic changes, as well as the expression of caspase-8 in liver tissue damage, both associated with ligature-induced periodontitis in rats. METHODOLOGY: A total of 16 female Wistar rats were divided into two groups (n=8): one received ligature around the first lower molar to promote periodontitis, and the other was the control group with no ligature. After the period of induction of the disease the animals were evaluated by clinical measures for periodontitis, euthanized, and the samples of gingival tissue, hepatic tissue, and serum were collected to the measurement of biomarkers for inflammation (myeloperoxidase), oxidative stress (glutathione, malonaldehyde, and nitrate [NO3]), liver damage and histopathological evaluation with immunohistochemistry for caspase-8. The data were expressed as mean and standard deviation for data with normal distribution or median and interquartile range for data with non-normal distribution. We used ANOVA followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls test for multiple comparisons of normally distributed data, and the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's test for non-normally distributed data. The statistical tests were performed with GraphPad Prism Software (version 5.0), in which a p-value <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Our study demonstrates that the group with ligature-induced periodontitis showed increased measurement of periodontal destruction, local and systemic biomarkers of inflammation as well as liver damage which we observed several hepatocytes with loss of conformation and steatosis in the periodontitis group. The histopathological evaluation evidenced the periodontitis-related steatosis and higher expression of Caspase-8 in comparison with the control group (p<0.0006). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates the high expression of Caspase-8 in liver damage related to ligature-induced periodontitis in rats.