Evaluation of Relationship between Streptococcus mutans, Dental Caries and IL-1α and IL-6

Background and aims. Streptococcus mutans is an important species in oral microflora and its components have been found to stimulate production of proinflammatory cytokines in dental caries. The aim of this study was to evaluate proin-flammatory cytokines (IL-1α and IL-6) in patients with S. mutans.
Materials and methods. Seventy samples were selected during pulpectomy and investigated for the presence of IL-1α and IL-6 by ELISA. The results were analyzed by t-test (α = 0.05).
Results. The results showed higher mean concentrations of IL-6 and IL-1a in inflamed pulpal tissues in subjects with den-tal caries associated with S. mutans, compared with intact pulpal tissue samples; these higher means were statistically sig-nificant in all cases (P