| Summary: | The bacterium <i>Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans</i> is associated with aggressive forms of periodontitis and with systemic diseases, such as endocarditis. By assessing a Ghanaian longitudinal adolescent cohort, we earlier recognized the <i>cagE</i> gene as a possible diagnostic marker for a subgroup of JP2 and non-JP2 genotype serotype b <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> strains, associated with high leukotoxicity as determined in a semi-quantitative cell assay. This group of <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> is associated with the progression of attachment loss. In the present work, we used conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and quantitative PCR to perform the <i>cagE</i> genotyping of our collection of 116 selected serotype b <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> strains, collected over a period of 15 years from periodontitis patients living in Sweden. The <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> strains carrying <i>cagE</i> (referred to as <i>cagE</i><sup>+</sup>; n = 49) were compared to the <i>cagE</i>-negative strains (n = 67), present at larger proportions in the subgingival plaque samples, and were also much more prevalent in the young (≤35 years) compared to in the old (>35 years) group of patients. Our present results underline the potential use of <i>cagE</i> genotyping in the risk assessment of the development of periodontal attachment loss in Swedish adolescents.
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