INHIBITION OF A COLLAGENASE BY THE HUMAN GINGIVAL MICROBIOTA

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Abstract
When fresh human gingival tissue from patients suffering from periodontitis simplex was incubated for 3 days at 37[degree]C in broth with its indigenous flora, plus either growing cells or culture filtrates of Clostridium histolyticum as. sources of collagenase, no collagenolysis was detectable chemically. When the growth of the gingival microbiota was suppressed by antibiotics, the inhibition of collagenase was averted. The growth of the gingival microbiota did not destroy preformed collagenase or suppress its formation by C. histolyticum; rather, it effected a reversible inhibition of this enzyme. The formation of a soluble inhibitor of collagenase in cultures of the gingival bacteria could not be demonstrated; the inhibitory mechanisms required the continued presence of the bacterial cells. Altered collagen, in the form of bovine Achilles tendon sterilized by ethylene oxide was lysed by 70% of cultures of the gingival biota alone, and by all such cultures (presumably by proteases other than collagenase) when C. histolyticum filtrate was added.