Uncoupling of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS) in Gingival Tissue of Type 2 Diabetic Patients

In this study, we investigate the relation between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in periodontal disease of diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. We evaluated immunohistochemical VEGF and iNOS expressions in gingival biopsies from healthy individuals (no chronic periodontitis (CP)), patients with periodontitis alone (CP), patients with diabetes alone (DM) and diabetic patients with chronic periodontitis (DM + CP). We found a significant positive correlation between VEGF and iNOS expression in non-diabetic groups, but not in diabetic ones. Periodontal clinical parameters were not found to be significantly correlated with the inflammatory markers in no-CP, CP, and DM groups, whereas in DM + CP, positive and significant correlations were found between all the considered periodontal parameters and epithelial VEGF and endothelial iNOS. The uncoupling of VEGF and iNOS expression in diabetic individuals could allow a greater involvement of the markers in the inflammatory process of periodontitis.