RESUMO
Bacterial heat shock protein has been one of the components that are responsible to induce autoimmune disease mechanisms in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis due to high level of homology in sequence with human counterpart. This mechanism may explain how bacterial infectious disease, such as periodontal disease, might contribute to the acceleration of the disease process of atherosclerosis. Porphyromonas gingivalis which is a major periodontal pathogenic bacterial species, has been implicated as one of the pathogenic bacteria playing the role in this context. The present study has been performed to evaluate the anti-atherosclerotic effect of adoptive transfer of Porphyromonas gingivalis heat shock protein epitope-specific T cell lines into severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. Peptide no. 15 with amino acid sequence VKEVASKTNDspecific T cell line was selected for the transfer. When experimental atherosclerosis was induced in SCID mice adoptively transferred either by the T cell lines (experimental group) or by non-specific mouse T cells (control group), there was no significant difference in the severity and extent of the atherosclerosis induced by hypercholesterol diet.
