Salivary histamine level as a predictor of periodontal disease in type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic subjects

Background: Some previous investigations underscored the role of histamine in periodontal disease, especially in diabetic patients, but the behavior of this inflammatory mediator in the early phases of periodontal involvement remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to correlate the presence of histamine in saliva with clinical parameters in healthy, periodontitis-affected, and diabetic subjects to ascertain whether this amine may serve as a predictive index of periodontal risk. Methods: For this purpose, subjects were selected as follows: 1) with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus; 2) with neither diabetes nor periodontitis; 3) with no diabetes but with chronic, untreated periodontal disease. Histamine salivary levels were measured at the initial time (TO) and after 6, 12, and 24 months using high-performance liquid chromatography. The main periodontal indexes were recorded at the same time intervals. Results: At TO, a very typical shape of the histamine chromatogram was found for all patients of the three groups; at this time, the salivary histamine levels of diabetic patients were increased and comparable to those of healthy patients with periodontal disease, whereas healthy subjects with no periodontitis showed reduced histamine levels. Further controls at 6, 12, and 24 months showed a statistically significant correlation between the increase of salivary histamine and the worsening of the periodontal indexes in diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Conclusion: These results suggest that salivary histamine may serve as a predictive index in the prevention of periodontal disease.