Abstract
New treatments used as adjuncts to the conventional periodontal therapy have been proposed, such as the use of probiotics, which are living microorganisms that confer health benefits when used in the adequate dosage. Numerous benefits have been related to the administration of Lactobacillus reuteri in periodontal disease, as decrease in probe depth and proinflammatory cytokine levels. However, studies have shown that the use of probiotics may generate non-beneficial reactions for some groups, such as in individuals with deficient immune systems, which stimulated the use of inactive bacteria that confer benefits to the individual's health: the paraprobiotics. Thus, the objective of the study is to evaluate the immunomodulatory mechanisms of living L. reuteri Prodentis and its paraprobiotic preparation in an invertebrate model. Before the study of the interaction of P. intermedia and L. reuteri, an analysis of the susceptibility of G. mellonella to infection by these microorganisms will be performed, to determine the sublethal concentration to be used in the experiments. For the survival curve evaluation of G. mellonella, suspensions of P. intermedia and / or L. reuteri will be injected into the larvae, which will be incubated at 37°C in the dark. Daily, for 7 days, the number of dead larvae will be recorded. To evaluate the haemocyte density, three larvae from each group will be incubated for 3 hours after infection. Thereafter, the hemolymph will be removed, and the haemocyte cells will be counted using a hemocytometer. For the survival experiments in G. mellonella, the survival curve and estimation of differences by the Log-rank method (Mantel-Cox) will be performed. For the statistical analysis of the hemocyte count, the ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis test will be applied, depending on the normality of the sample. In all tests, a significance level of 5% will be considered. (AU)
|