Pro-inflammatory cytokines in saliva of adolescents with dental caries disease.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Dental caries is an inflammatory disease with multifactorial etiology. The presented study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the elevation of salivary cytokines - interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF-a) is changed in dental caries patients. IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-a are particularly relevant to inflammation, one of the very first responses of the host to a pathological insult. MATERIALS AND METHODS Whole saliva from 26 patients with dental caries, as well as 10 healthy persons, was investigated for the presence of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-a by enzyme immunoassay - ELISA. RESULTS The results showed that an elevation of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-a in unstimulated whole saliva in subjects with dental caries, compared with controls, increased and was statistically significant in all cases (p <0.05). The study also show a positive correlation between TNF-a and IL-8. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest links between the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF-a), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) in saliva and dental caries disease.