Screening of periodontitis-related genes and immune cells based on an integrated bioinformatics analysis.

Background: Periodontitis is a serious health issue; however, there are few reports on periodontitis and immune related. The study sought to analyze differences in gene expression between periodontitis patients before and after treatment using bioinformatics techniques.

Methods: The GSE6751 data set was screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and immune-related genes using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, a gene expression data analysis tool. Enrichment, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, and immune cell correlation analyses were also performed on these genes.

Results: A total of 327 DEGs in periodontitis were identified, including 149 upregulated genes, 178 downregulated genes, and 27 immune-related genes. The immune-related DEGs were mainly involved in granulocyte chemotaxis, granulocyte migration, leukocyte chemotaxis, cytokine receptor binding, Toll-like receptor (TLR) binding, the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and protein kinase b signaling pathway, viral protein interactions with cytokines and cytokine receptors, the Ras-proximate-1 signaling pathway, the Ras signaling pathway, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, and immune response related pathways. and were the key core genes in the constructed PPI network.

Conclusions: The pathogenesis of periodontitis is closely related to changes in the expression of genes, such as and , among which IFNG and TLR2 are potential therapeutic targets for periodontitis.