Effects of Periodontal Treatment on Host and Microbiological Interactions

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate correlations between  periodontal pathogens, biomarkers of inflammation and  clinical indices before and after periodontal treatment.

Materials and methods: Data were obtained from 15 chronic periodontitis patients. The clinical parameters (PD, PAL, BOP) were recorded at baseline and 6 weeks after scaling and root planing. Subgingival plaque samples and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) were collected from 9 pockets at both timepoints. Plaque samples were analyzed with  “Checkerboard” DNA-DNA hybridization for P. gingivalis, T. forsythia and T. denticola. The “Checkerboard” Immunoblotting technique was used for quantitative assessment of IL-1β, IL-6 ,IL-8,MMP-8 and TNF-α in GCF.

Results: Periodontal treatment resulted in statistically significant improvement of the clinical parameters (PD from 5.25 ± 0.09 to 3.58 ± 0.1 mm , PAL from  6.43 ± 0.28 to 5.57 ± 0.24 mm), GCF volume (from 0.54 ± 0.06  to 0.28 ± 0.03 uls) and bacterial levels (P. gingivalis from 9.53 ± 2.26 to 1.84 ± 0.78 (x10⁵), T. forsythia from  6.96 ± 1.39 to 1.13 ± 0.47 (x10⁵) and T. denticola from 6.7 ± 1.51 to 1.2 ± 0.52 (x10⁵) (Wilcoxon signed ranks test, p<0.05) . Levels of certain biomarkers were also statistically reduced (TNFα from 71.79 ± 23.71 to 29.37 ± 12.56 pg /site/30sec ,IL-6 from 44.52 ± 11.27 to 7.69 ± 3.0 pg/site/30 sec and MMP-8 from 152.06 ± 51.53 to 70.18 ± 15.6 ng/site/30 sec) (Wilcoxon signed ranks test, p<0.05)  but not for IL-1β and IL-8. Strong correlations were found between IL-6, TNF-α and bacterial species (Spearman test, p<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that between biomarkers examined in GCF, mainly IL-6 and TNFα levels correlate with alterations of clinical and microbiological indices 6 weeks after periodontal treatment.