Gingival transcriptomic profiles following initial periodontal therapy reveal differences between Grade B and Grade C periodontitis in B-cell receptor- and Fcγ receptor-related pathways

Objective Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the tooth-supporting tissues. Whether different clinical grades of periodontitis are associated with distinct local gingival molecular profiles remains unclear. This study compared gingival transcriptomic profiles between patients with Grade B and Grade C periodontitis following initial periodontal therapy, with the hypothesis that the two grades would exhibit differences in local immune and biological processes.Design Gingival tissues were collected after initial periodontal therapy from patients with Grade B or Grade C periodontitis. RNA sequencing was followed by differential gene expression, pathway enrichment, protein-protein interaction, cell-type deconvolution, and transcription factor analyses. Selected genes were validated by qPCR, and key findings were further assessed by immunofluorescence.Results Among 28,395 genes evaluated, 684 were differentially expressed between Grade C and Grade B periodontitis, including 440 up-regulated and 244 down-regulated genes in Grade C (adjusted p Conclusions These findings suggest that, following initial periodontal therapy, increased expression of immune-related genes and reduced expression of keratinization-related genes are associated with Grade C compared with Grade B periodontitis and warrant further investigation and validation.