Background: Cigarette smoking has been shown to negatively influence healing following periodontal therapeutic procedures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of smoking on clinical outcome of root coverage following subepithelial connective tissue graft (CTG) surgery.Methods: Eighteen defects were treated in 15 patients (seven smokers and eight non‐smokers) who presented canine and premolar Miller Class I and II recessions. CTG was performed and clinical measurements were obtained at baseline, and 30, 60, 90, and 120 days after surgery. Clinical measurements included plaque and gingival indexes, gingival recession, probing depth, clinical attachment level, gingival thickness, and keratinized tissue width.Results: Intragroup analysis showed that CTG was able to promote root coverage, increase gingival thickness, and improve clinical attachment level in both groups (P <0.05). On the other hand, intergroup analysis demonstrated that smokers presented with a lower percentage of root coverage (58.84% ± 13.68% versus 74.73% ± 14.72%), less clinical attachment level gain (2.54 ± 0.79 mm versus 2.00 ± 1.04 mm), and deeper probing depths (1.56 ± 0.53 mm versus 2.35 ± 0.67 mm) than non‐smokers (P <0.05). Moreover, 4 months after CTG, smokers presented more keratinized tissue compared to non‐smokers (3.30 < 0.86 mm versus 4.50 ± 1.16 mm) (P <0.05).Conclusion: Within the limits of the present study, it can be concluded that cigarette consumption may present a negative impact on root coverage outcome by CTG and, therefore, may represent one more challenge for periodontal plastic therapy. J Periodontol 2004;75:586‐591.

Background: Studies evaluating the methylation status of cytokine genes may have relevance for inflammatory diseases in which the expression of some cytokines is altered, such as periodontitis. This study observes the DNA methylation status in the interleukin‐8 (IL8) gene promoter in cells of the oral epithelium of subjects affected by generalized aggressive periodontitis (AgP) and compares it to those of control subjects.Methods: Genomic DNA from epithelial oral cells of 37 generalized AgP patients and 37 controls were purified and modified by sodium bisulphite. Modified DNA was submitted by methylation‐specific polymerase chain reaction, electrophoresed on 10% polyacrylamide gels, and stained.Results: Subjects who presented generalized AgP have a higher frequency of hypomethylation of the IL8 gene promoter in oral epithelium cells than that of controls (86.5% in the generalized AgP group versus 62% in the control group; P = 0.016; χ² test).Conclusions: A marked hypomethylated status is found in the oral epithelial cells of subjects presenting with generalized AgP, compared to controls, in the promoter region of the IL8 gene. This hypomethylated status may reflect a generalized condition of oral epithelial cells, including gingival epithelium, because gingival epithelial cells were also collected during mouthwash use.

Background: The proinflammatory chemokine interleukin (IL)‐8 is important in the regulation of the inflammatory response. Analyses of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) reference sequence (rs) 4073 showed that the A allele upregulated IL‐8 levels after stimulation with lipopolysaccharides. We investigated the association of the SNP rs4073 with chronic periodontitis.Methods: Genotyping was performed by a standard polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism assay in 289 genomic DNA samples of healthy control subjects and patients with chronic periodontitis; analyses were adjusted by multivariate logistic regression modeling. A real‐time polymerase chain reaction performance was used to detect levels of the IL‐8 mRNA.Results: The analysis pointed to a statistically significant association of chronic periodontitis with the heterozygous TA genotype (P = 0.001); the results showed an increase in the frequency of the A allele in the diseased group (36% in the control group versus 48% in the periodontitis group). The higher levels of the IL‐8 mRNA were found in the periodontitis group, mainly in individuals who presented the TA genotype (P = 0.03).Conclusion: The SNP rs4073 was associated with chronic periodontitis in non‐smoker Brazilian subjects because the frequency of the A allele was higher in the disease group than in the control group, and the TA genotype was associated with increased levels of IL‐8 mRNA transcripts.