Invasion and Survival of Porphyromonas gingivalis in Human ARPE-19 Cells

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible vision loss in elderly is associated with several systemic conditions. Recent studies link Periodontal Disease (PD) to AMD. As we demonstrated previously, Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg),a keystone oral-pathobiont that cause periodontitis, invades blood dendritic and gingival epithelial cells. However, there is no evidence that Pg invades retinal-pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The primary objective of this study is to test whether Pg and its fimbrial-mutants invade human ARPE-19 cells after infection.