AUTHOR=Ding Qinfeng , Tan Kai Soo TITLE=The Danger Signal Extracellular ATP Is an Inducer of Fusobacterium nucleatum Biofilm Dispersal JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00155 DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2016.00155 ISSN=2235-2988 ABSTRACT=
Plaque biofilm is the primary etiological agent of periodontal disease. Biofilm formation progresses through multiple developmental stages beginning with bacterial attachment to a surface, followed by development of microcolonies and finally detachment and dispersal from a mature biofilm as free planktonic bacteria. Tissue damage arising from inflammatory response to biofilm is one of the hallmark features of periodontal disease. A consequence of tissue damage is the release of ATP from within the cell into the extracellular space. Extracellular ATP (eATP) is an example of a danger associated molecular pattern (DAMP) employed by mammalian cells to elicit inflammatory and damage healing responses. Although, the roles of eATP as a signaling molecule in multi-cellular organisms have been relatively well studied, exogenous ATP also influences bacteria biofilm formation. Since plaque biofilms are continuously exposed to various stresses including exposure to the host damage factors such as eATP, we hypothesized that eATP, in addition to eliciting inflammation could potentially influence the biofilm lifecycle of periodontal associated bacteria. We found that eATP rather than nutritional factors or oxidative stress induced dispersal of