Figure 2. Del-1 deficiency is associated with inflammatory periodontal bone loss and neutrophil infiltration.
(a) Sixteen-week-old C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) or Edil3−/− mice, of either gender, were assessed for periodontal bone heights (upper panel); data were transformed to indicate bone loss in Edil3−/− mice relative to WT bone heights (lower panel). (b) Gingiva were dissected from 16-week-old WT or Edil3−/− mice and mRNA expression of the indicated molecules was determined by qPCR (normalized against GAPDH mRNA and expressed as fold change in Edil3−/− transcript abundance relative to WT). (c,d,e) Sagittal sections of maxillary teeth from 16-week-old WT or Edil3−/− mice were stained for IL-17A (c) or the neutrophil marker Ly6G (e). Shown are representative fluorescent confocal images [left] and corresponding DIC images [right] (T, tooth; G, gingiva; S, sulcus). The fluorescence intensities of these and additional representative images from independent mice (5 per group) were quantified using ImageJ analysis (d). (f) Time course of bone loss in Edil3−/− mice and WT littermate controls; negative values indicate bone loss relative to 5-week-old WT. Data are means ± SD (n= 4–6 mice per group) from one of two independent sets of experiments yielding similar results. *P <0.05; **P <0.01 compared to corresponding control.