Impact of Non-Surgical Periodontal Therapy on the Salivary Levels of Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinse-1 (TIMP-1) in Patients with Chronic Periodontitis: A Third World Experience

Chronic periodontitis is a disease of public health concern due to its high prevalence globally, especially in the elderly. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of non-surgical periodontal therapy on salivary levels of TIMP-1 among patients with chronic periodontitis in Nigeria. In this experimental study, unstimulated whole saliva (2 mL) was collected from participants in the experimental and control groups, coded (SP1-40 and SH1-40) respectively and assays for salivary TIMP-1as well as clinical measurements such as plaque (PI), probing depths (PD), and CAL were recorded before and 4 weeks after periodontal treatment. Assay was done using Quantikine human TIMP-1 ELISA kit. Data were presented using frequency tables, means and standard deviation. Paired-T Test assessed association between salivary TIMP-1 before and after treatment. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to correlate salivary TIMP-1 levels with clinical parameters of periodontal disease and levels of statistical significance were set at p < 0.05. A total of 80 respondents participated in the study of which 43.80% were females. Age range was 18 - 60 years with a mean of 35.8 ± 12.46 years. Salivary TIMP-1 levels were lower in the case group (13.58 ± 6.53 ng/mL) than the control (15.27 ± 6.10 ng/mL) at baseline but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.13). There was a statistically significant increase in the salivary levels of TIMP-1 in the case group after phase-one periodontal therapy from 13.58 ± 6.53 ng/mL to 17.24 ± 8.44 ng/mL (p = 0.001). Negative correlations were observed between TIMP-1 and clinical parameters of periodontitis. This was not statistically significant. Therefore, TIMP-1 may not be an ideal biomarker for periodontal diagnosis but may be useful in treatment monitoring of the disease.