Background & objective: A higher prevalence of periodontal disease among areca nut chewers than non chewers has been demonstrated. Neutrophils, the first line of defence mechanism against microbial infection play an important role in maintaining the periodontal health. In this context our aim was to evaluate the effects of areca nut extracts on phagocytic activity by neutrophils isolated from gingival crevicular washing of healthy subjects and patients with chronic periodontitis.
Material and methods: Sample size consisted of a total of 60 subjects which were divided into two groups of 30 each. Group I consisted healthy subjects and Group II consisted clinically diagnosed cases of chronic periodontitis. Neutrophils isolated from gingival crevicular washings of both groups were treated with aqueous extracts of ripe areca nut (rANE) and tender areca nut (tANE) and examined for their effect on cellular viability of neutrophils using typan blue exclusion assay. The possible/ ableffects on the phagocytic activity of neutrophils against a periodontal pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans(ATCC 33384) was determined by using microscopic method.
Results: Both rANE and tANE affected the phagocytic activity by neutrophils in healthy and patients with chronic periodontitis. Ripe areca nut extract has altered the neutrophil functions more than tender areca nut in both the groups. There was no difference seen in the cell viability of neutrophils when treated with rANE and tANE in both the groups (p> 0.05).
Conclusion: Both ripe and tender arecanut extract affected the neutrophil function in healthy and patients with chronic periodontitis. Ripe arecanut extract significantly altered the neutrophils functions more than tender areca nut extract. Thus, alterations in these functions of neutrophils may lead to signs of clinical diseases associated with areca chewing.
Keywords: Areca nut; Chronic periodontitis; Neutrophil phagocytic activity.