Grant: Operating Grant

Several commonly used drugs for treatment of epilepsy, high blood pressure and prevention of organ transplant rejection, cause pronounced overgrowth of gum tissues. This overgrowth make it difficult for affected patients to clean their teeth and greatly increases gum infections and tooth loss. In this project I seek to identify the underlying mechanisms by which these drugs cause gum overgrowth in the hope of preventing rational approaches to prevention. I have found a protein that is abundant in human gum tissues which may be important for enabling cells to maintain the normal structure and function of gum tissues. I have also discovered that this protein, which is named "flightless", plays two critical roles in the specific functions that are required for maintaining gum tissue in health. In this proposal I describe how the function of the protein in maintaining gum tissue structure and function will be defined and how I might be able to find critical elements of its function that will point the way to preventive strategies to be used clinically by dentists when treating patients that are taking drugs that can cause gum overgrowth.