Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease accompanied by alveolar bone resorption by
osteoclasts. Porphyromonas gingivalis, an etiological agent for periodontitis, produces
cysteine proteases called gingipains, which are classified based on their cleavage site
specificity (ie arginine (Rgps) and lysine (Kgps) gingipains). We previously reported that Kgp
degraded osteoprotegerin (OPG), an osteoclastogenesis inhibitory factor secreted by
osteoblasts, and enhanced osteoclastogenesis induced by various Toll-like receptor (TLR) …