Why do obese people suffer more from the gums diseases was researched by the US scientists with the help of the mice experiments. The bacteria can get much easier into the gums tissues and destroy the bones holding the teeth much faster if the immune system is weakened. However it is not yet clear why the immune system gets weaker, as is reported by the researchers in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)".

During an inflammation fewer substances fighting the aliens are being sent.

"Our research results have indicated that obesity caused by the faults in nutrition also increases the susceptibility to bacterial infections, whereas the immune system regulation is also infringed. ", explains Salomon Amar and his colleagues from the Boston University. The scientists infected the teeth of the mice with normal and exceeded weight with the Porphyromonas bacteria, the most wide-spread species of the bacteria of gingival tissues. After 10 days the mice with obesity lost 40% of the jaws bones mass because of the infection. Besides, the number of other bacteria in their mouths has grown significantly.

Further research has shown that the immune cells begin to react less effectively to the infections pathogenic organisms. The excretion of the immune system “signal substances” was impeded and the genes which normally govern the reactions to the infections have shown the abnormal behavior. Thus the scientist could show that the routine reaction of the genes and the immune system to the infection is influenced by the fact of obesity. Why exactly it happens has not yet been clearly stated.

Joachim Czichos, WSA