Treponema denticola is a gram-negative anaerobe that can cause periodontal disease. The adhesion of this bacterium to host tissues is considered to be the primary event in the colonization and infection of a host. Fibrinogen is generally found in damaged tissues resulting from periodontitis. The binding ability of T. denticola to fibrinogen may therefore be an important virulence factor in inducing periodontal diseases. It has been reported recently that oral spirochetes can be labeled with fluorescent fatty acids and we speculated that this labeling method could be used in an oral spirochete binding assay. The binding of several different strains of T. denticola to immobilized human fibrinogen was therefore tested using the fluorescent fatty acid labeling method. In the case of immobilized fibrinogen, the T. denticola ATCC 35405 strain showed saturable binding to immobilized fibrinogen. Indeed, all four different T. denticola strains tested in this experiment, T. denticola ATCC 35405, T. denticola ATCC 33520, T. denticola ATCC 35404 and T. denticola OTK showed binding to fibrinogen. The fluorescent fatty acid labeling method thus shows utility in binding assays for T. denticola, different strains of which can generally bind to immobilized fibrinogen.

Postantibiotic effect (PAE) is defined as the length of time that bacterial growth is suppressed following brief exposure to an antibiotic. In this study, the in vitro PAE, postantibiotic sub-MIC effect (PA SME) and sub-MIC effect (SME) of antibiotics on Treponema denticola ATCC 35405 were investigated. The PAE of doxycycline and metronidazole were 20.3 h and 25.0 h, respectively. The PA SMEs examined by addition of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3X MICs during the postantibiotic phase of the bacteria for metronidazole were longer than those for doxycycline. In contrast, the SMEs for doxycycline were longer than those for metronidazole. The PA-SME and SME values increased as the concentration of antibiotics increased. The present study illustrates the existence of PAE, PA-SME and SME for several antibiotics against T. denticola, thereby extending the pharmacodynamic advantages of these antibiotics.

Treponema denticola is the best studied oral spirochete and numerous studies have shown that it is strongly associated with periodontitis and expresses several putative virulence factors. In this study, we report on a surface protein of T. denticola, Td92, which is homologous to Tp92 of Treponema pallidum, an agent of syphilis. Immunofluorescence assay and immunogold labeling with anti-Td92 Ab revealed that Td92 had surface-exposed epitopes. And Td92 was capable of binding to fibronectin and KB cells, an oral epithelial cell line. In addition, Td92 could enter the KB cells. These results indicate that Td92 is a fibronectin-binding protein which can bind to and internalize into the host cells, facilitating the virulence of T. denticola.