## 3 Results
### Selected TLRs and NLRs Localization in Healthy Gingival and Periodontitis Biopsies
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Health (_n = 13_)} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Periodontitis (_n = 17_)} \\ \cline{2-7}  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Epithelium**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Connective**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Epithelium**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Connective**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **OE** & **OSE** & **JE** & **Tissue** & **OE** & **PE** & **Tissue** \\ \hline TLR1 & \(16.8\pm 5.2\) & \(13.7\pm 5.4\) & \(17.9\pm 6.4\) & \(19.5\pm 6.7\) & \(57.9\pm 14.6\)** ** **\(21.4\pm 7.1\)** & \(59.3\pm 10.3\)** ** ** **\({}^{*}\)** \\ TLR2 & \(36.5\pm 9.7\) & \(44.6\pm 18.4\) & \(40.7\pm 8.6\) & \(27.4\pm 8.4\) & \(65.4\pm 11.2\)** **\({}^{**}\)** **\(62.7\pm 110.*\)** & \(78.1\pm 126.6\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ TLR4 & \(41.5\pm 12.6\) & \(12.9\pm 3.3\) & \(15.6\pm 6.1\) & \(28.3\pm 8.5\) & \(40.2\pm 11.6\) & \(30.3\pm 8.2\)** ** \({}^{*}\) & \(50.3\pm 7.9\)** ** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ TLR5 & \(29.3\pm 5.8\) & \(41.7\pm 20.1\) & \(72.6\pm 11.2\) & \(34.2\pm 7.3\) & \(50.8\pm 8.5\)** ** \({}^{**}\) & \(69.4\pm 15.7\) & \(60.8\pm 11.6\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ TLR6 & \(63.7\pm 15.9\) & \(55.8\pm 18.4\) & \(41.8\pm 12.4\) & \(39.8\pm 9.2\) & \(59.7\pm 8.2\) & \(51.4\pm 9.2\) & \(64.9\pm 13.4\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ NOD1 & \(15.2\pm 6.1\) & \(13.1\pm 4.6\) & \(18.7\pm 4.6\) & \(26.8\pm 5.5\) & \(41.5\pm 10.6\)** ** \({}^{**}\) & \(43.5\pm 9.4\)** **\({}^{**}\)** & \(68.1\pm 12.0\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ NOD2 & \(22.0\pm 9.6\) & \(14.6\pm 5.1\) & \(15.4\pm 4.7\) & \(28.6\pm 4.6\) & \(25.7\pm 8.9\) & \(39.1\pm 10.2\) ** \({}^{*}\) & \(58.9\pm 11.2\) **\({}^{**}\)** \\ NLRP1 & \(17.8\pm 7.6\) & \(17.5\pm 6.3\) & \(17.3\pm 8.9\) & \(31.1\pm 5.7\) & \(21.8\pm 7.9\) & \(30.3\pm 8.1\) & \(61.4\pm 15.3\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ NLRP2 & \(20.3\pm 9.1\) & \(14.1\pm 5.7\) & \(11.3\pm 5.8\) & \(29.0\pm 11.5\) & \(29.2\pm 6.2\) & \(24.3\pm 7.5\) & \(55.3\pm 14.5\)** **\({}^{**}\)** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Data expressed as mean \(\pm\) SD. JE–junctional epithelium; OE—oral epithelium; OSE—oral sulcurle epithelium; PE—pocket epithelium.
* \({}^{1}\) One-way ANOVA was utilized for data analysis.
* \(p<0.05\), *
* \(p<0.01\)**; healthy OE vs. periodontitis-OE, JE vs. PE, or health connective tissue vs. periodontitis connective tissue.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Percentage proportions of Toll-like and NOD-like receptor-positive staining areas in periodontal tissue biopsies \({}^{1}\). Figure 1: TLR1/2/4/5/6, NOD1/2 or NLRP1/2 immunohistochemical detection in healthy gingival (rows 1–3) or periodontitis tissue (rows 4–5) biopsies. Specific damage-associated molecular patterns are detected as brown DAB stain. Scale bars = 100 μm. Column A-I showed micrographs of TLR1/2/4/5/6, NOD1/2 or NLRP1/2 detection, respectively. Rows 1–5 are: healthy oral epithelium (H-OE), oral sulcular epithelium (OSE), junctional epithelium (JE), periodontitis oral epithelium (P-OE) and pocket epithelium (PE), respectively. Shown are representative micrographs from healthy human gingival biopsies (\(n=13\)) and periodontitis biopsies (\(n=17\)) with staining from three independent experiments. TLR3/7/8/9/10 immuno-detection was attempted but had negative staining results (data not shown). The semi-quantitative data concerning detection of DAMP sensors of interest are shown in Table 3. In brief, expression of TLR1/2/5 or NOD1 in healthy or periodontitis tissue sections showed the TLRs of concern on H-OE (former) and appeared significantly lower than that of P-OE (latter, \(p\) < 0.01). On the other hand, expressions of TLR2/4, or NOD1/2 on PE in periodontitis tissue sections seemed significantly higher than those on JE of healthy tissue sections (_p_ < 0.05) (Table 3). The expressions of all TLRs and NLRs of interest in subepithelial connective tissue of periodontitis sections appeared higher than that of the subepithelial connective tissues from sections of healthy periodontal biopsies.