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. 2025 Feb;27(1):e70002.
doi: 10.1111/cid.70002.

Salivary Inflammatory Mediator Profiles in Periodontal and Peri-Implant Health and Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

Carl Titusson  1 , Leif Jansson  2   3 , Carolina Modin  2   3 , Anna Lundmark  1 , Kaja Eriksson  1 , Lottie Adler  2   3 , Tülay Yucel-Lindberg  1
Affiliations

Salivary Inflammatory Mediator Profiles in Periodontal and Peri-Implant Health and Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

Carl Titusson et al. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the salivary profile of inflammatory mediators in individuals with periodontal and peri-implant disease as compared to individuals with periodontal and peri-implant health.

Materials and methods: Saliva samples were collected from 155 participants (mean age 63.3 ± 11.4 years), comprising individuals with periodontal and peri-implant health (N = 41), gingivitis and/or mucositis (N = 18), and periodontitis and/or peri-implantitis (N = 96). Samples were analyzed using multiplex-immunoassay panel consisting of inflammatory mediators in the tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interferon (IFN), interleukin (IL) superfamily, and matrix metalloproteinases.

Results: The levels of B-cell activating factor (BAFF), sIL-6Rβ, IFN-β, and sIL-6Rα, sTNFR1, and Pentraxin-3 were significantly higher in patients with periodontitis and/or peri-implantitis compared to healthy subjects. Furthermore, among the investigated inflammatory mediators, Pentraxin-3 exhibited the highest diagnostic potential (AUC = 0.74) for distinguishing between subjects with periodontitis and/or peri-implantitis and healthy individuals.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated elevated salivary levels of BAFF, sIL-6Rβ, IFN-β, sIL-6Rα, sTNF-R1, and Pentraxin-3 in individuals with periodontitis and/or peri-implantitis in comparison to periodontal and peri-implant healthy controls.

Keywords: gingivitis; inflammatory mediators; periodontitis; peri‐implant mucositis; peri‐implantitis; saliva.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Diagnostic power analysis (ROC curves) for biomarkers in saliva to differentiate between subjects with periodontitis and/or peri‐implantitis and healthy subjects adjusted for age, sex and smoking, with AUC values embedded within the figures. (A) BAFF; (B) sIL‐6Rβ; (C) IFN‐β; (D) sIL‐6Rα; (E) sTNF‐R1; (F) Pentraxin‐3; (G) BAFF, sIL‐6Rβ, IFN‐β, sIL‐6R α, sTNF‐R1, Pentraxin‐3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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