Blood and tissue levels of lncRNAs in periodontitis.

Periodontitis is a complex disorder that affects a large number of human beings from different ethnic groups. This condition has been associated with dysregulation of a number of genes, among them are long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). In the current study, we assessed the expression of four lncRNAs (BDNF-AS, MIAT, MIR137HG, and PNKY) as well as BDNF in the peripheral blood and gingival tissues obtained from patients with periodontitis and healthy subjects. The expression of BDNF was significantly lower in blood samples of male patients with periodontitis compared with male controls (posterior beta of RE = -4.754, p = .048). However, there was no significant difference in the expression of BDNF in tissue samples from the cases and controls. The expression of BDNF-AS was significantly lower in the tissue samples of patients compared with control tissue samples (posterior beta of RE = -2.151, p = .019). Such an expression difference was detected between male subgroups as well (posterior beta of RE = -3.679, p = .009). However, expression of this lncRNA was not different in blood samples obtained from patients compared with healthy subjects. The expression of PNKY was significantly higher in tissue samples obtained from female patients compared with sex-matched controls (posterior beta of RE = 6.23, p = .037). Blood levels of this lncRNA were not different between cases and controls. There was no significant difference either in the tissue expression or in blood expression of MIR137HG or MIAT between cases and controls. The current study indicates the putative role of BDNF, BDNF-AS, and PNKY in the pathophysiology of periodontitis and potentiates these genes as candidates for functional studies.