Virulence of outer membrane proteins in Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

We are studying on outer membrane proteins (OMPs) in A. actinomycetemcomitans. We have already identified 6 major OMPs, and analyzed their functions by using molecular procedures. Especially, we demonstrated that one of the OMPs called Omp100 have versatile virulence factor including adhesion and invasion ability to the host cells, resistant to complemental killing, induction ability of inflammatory cytokines. We are now further characterizing each OMP to elucidate the association with periodontitis.