Clean teeth could save your life!

Researchers in New Zealand say good dental hygiene may help save lives.

The researchers from the University of Otago, Dunedin, have discovered a new link between gum disease and heart disease which adds to a substantial body of research linking gum disease with heart disease and stroke.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide but many people with cardiovascular disease have none of the common risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high cholesterol - gum disease is one of the most common infections of humans and a number of theories have been suggested to explain the link between oral infection and heart disease.

Professor Greg Seymour says one of these is that certain proteins from bacteria initiate atherosclerosis and help it progress and in order to establish if this was so they examined the role of heat shock proteins.

Atherosclerosis, which is the main cause of heart attacks, has been linked to chronic infections which cause "furring" of the arteries.

The researchers say heat shock proteins are produced by bacteria as well as animals and plants and occur after cells are exposed to different kinds of stress conditions, such as inflammation, toxins, starvation and oxygen and water deprivation.

For this reason heat shock proteins are also referred to as stress proteins which can work as chaperone molecules, stabilising other proteins, helping to fold them and transport them across cell membranes - some also bind to foreign antigens and present them to immune cells.

However because heat shock proteins are produced by humans as well as bacteria, the immune system may not be able to distinguish between those from the body and those from invading pathogens - which can lead the immune system to mount an attack on its own proteins.

Professor Seymour says when this happens, white blood cells can build up in the tissues of the arteries, causing atherosclerosis.

Professor Seymour says they discovered white blood cells called T cells in the lesions of arteries in patients affected by atherosclerosis which were able to bind to host heat shock proteins as well as those from bacteria that cause gum disease.

He says this suggests that the similarity between the proteins could be the link between oral infection and atherosclerosis.

This means that when the immune system reacts to oral infection, it also attacks host proteins, causing arterial disease.

The researchers say the findings highlight the importance of adult oral health to overall health and well being, and control of gum disease should be essential in reducing the risk of heart disease.

Professor Seymour says this is a significant step towards a more complete understanding of heart disease and improving treatment and preventive therapies.