Aim: The monocyte lipopolysaccharide receptor (LPS) CD14 plays an important role in the in-flammatory response by mediating activation of macrophages, which results in the release of sev-eral inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-a and interleukin 1 and 6. Recently a polymorphism of the CD14 gene, C(-260)→T, was detected to induce a hyperinflammatory response. The aim of this study was to investigate, whether this polymorphism is associated with periodontitis in a South-German population. Methods: 151 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke (T) and 149 representative population controls (C) from a case control study were screened for the pres-ence of the C(-260)→T polymorphism by restriction length analysis. Subjects were clinically and radiographically examined for the presence of periodontitis. A questionnaire was used by trained interviewers in a face-to-face interview to investigate all known and/or suspected risk factors for stroke and periodontitis. Periodontitis was defined according to Beck (1996) Results: The TT-genotype was not associated with periodontitis neither in univariate nor in multivariate analysis together with other risk factors for periodontitis. However, in a subset of male subjects under the age of 60, the TT-genotype was statistically significant associated with periodontitis (OR 4.90; 95%-CI 1.06-22.53; p=0.041) in a multivariate analysis together with 'age', 'number of teeth', 'diabetes mellitus', 'smoking' and 'socio-economic status' (all n.s.) Conclusion: The C(-260)→T polymorphysm in the promotor of the CD14 gene seems to be associated with perio-dontitis in males under the age of 60 in a South-German population. However, the results of this study have to be confirmed by a population based cohort study. Keywords: periodontitis, ischemic stroke, cerebrovascular disease