Short-term effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment on local and systemic cytokine levels: Role of hyperglycemia

Background: The effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment on oral and systemic inflammatory mediators in subjects with periodontitis and hyperglycemia remains largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this clinical study was to compare the short-term effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment on serum, saliva and GCF inflammatory markers levels in GP subjects with or without hyperglycemia. Methods: Sixty subjects divided into four groups of equal size were selected to participate: type 2 diabetics with generalized periodontitis (T2DM + GP), pre-diabetics with GP (PD + GP), normoglycemic subjects with GP (NG + GP), and healthy controls. GCF, serum, and saliva samples were obtained at baseline and 30 days after scaling and root planning (SRP) and the levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1 β), IL-8, IL-6, IL-2, IL-5, IL-4, IL-10, Interferon gamma (IFN-γ), Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were determined by ultrasensitive multiplex assay. Clinical periodontal measurements were recorded. Results: SRP yielded significant improvement of all periodontal parameters for all GP groups (p < 0.01). A significant reduction in GCF levels of several cytokines were observed; however, only IL-1B and IFN-γ were consistently reduced post-treatment across all GP groups. Salivary levels of IL-1β were significantly reduced in all GP groups following treatment. No significant differences were observed for serum levels after SRP. Conclusions: Periodontal treatment reduced local inflammatory markers, specifically IL-1B and IFN-γ, irrespective of the diabetes status. Periodontal treatment had no significant effect on serum levels of the inflammatory markers evaluated in this study.