Relationships between smoking & IL-1β concentrations in chronic periodontal patients

Cigarette smoking is a significant risk factor in pathogenesis and progression of periodontal diseases. Smoking could interfere with pro-inflammatory cytokines in inflammatory process. IL-1β is a main inflammatory cytokine in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) which contributes in periodontitis. In fact it is a key molecule in pathogenesis of periodontitis. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between cigarette smoking and concentration of cytokine interleukin (IL) -1β in GCF of patients with moderate-to-sever chronic periodontitis. Sixty subjects were entered into this analytical case-control study, divided equally into smokers and non smokers. Two groups were matched in clinical parameters, age and sex. GCF samples were collected in one diseased and one healthy site from each subject. The IL-1β concentration in all 120 samples was determined by ELISA kits, specific for IL-1β. The observed data were analysed with SPSS13 software using T, Paired T, Chi-square and Mann-whitney tests. Mean concentration of GCF IL-1β in healthy sites of the smokers was significantly more than non smokers (p<0.01). But in diseased sites no significant differences were shown between the two groups. The differences between concentration of IL-1β in smokers and nonsmokers were not significant. Although no significant differences were found in concentration of IL-1β between all smokers and all non smokers, there were significant differences between two groups in healthy sites, which require more investigations.