Mitra Askari - Assistant professor, Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology Department, School of Dentistry , Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Background: Currently, periodontal and peri-implant diseases are diagnosed by multiple manual recordings but also professional examiners with trained expertise. These clinical and radiographic procedures of periodontitis and peri-implantitis have low sensitivity and low positive predictive value. on the other hand increased levels of active MMP-8, have been detected in periodontitis and peri-implantitis-affected oral fluids, and peri-implant sulcular fluid.Methods: Leteratures were searched on pubmed, scupus and google up to July 20019. Results: different detection methods such as ELISA, IFMA, and Luminex showed that MMP-8 levels have been found in association with the levels of type I collagen degradation products, overcoming the protective shield of tissue inhibitors of MMP in disease active sites versus in inactive sites from periodontitis patients and healthy controls (p<0.05). The salivary level of MMP-8 varied greatly between different studies and the SD (Standard Deviation) was also relatively variable in some studies, which may be explained by the variation in salivary flow rate, use of antimicrobial agents, and smoking habits. These factors may cause interference in salivary analysis to some extent. Different detection methods may also contribute to the variability.Conclusion: Salivary MMP-8 is a hopeful biomarker candidate that can be used for diagnosing and assessing the progression periodontal and peri-implant diseases. further high quality researches are still necessary to confirm the conclusion.

MMP-8, Biomarker, Periodontitis