Chemokine Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-3 in Progressive Periodontal Lesions in Patients With Chronic

Background: Chemokines are central in the activation and direction of leukocyte subsets to target tis-sues. However, the monocyte chemoattractant protein-3 (MCP-3) has not been associated with chronicperiodontitis. Chronic periodontitis is an infection showing episodic supporting tissue destruction. Theaim of this study is to determine the levels and expression of MCP-3 in periodontal sites characterized byactive periodontal connective tissue destruction.Methods: The study population consisted of 15 patients with a progression of periodontitis (15 of 56 pa-tients), 18 patients with chronic periodontitis, and 10 healthy subjects without periodontal disease. As de-terminedbythetolerancemethod,the15patientswithmoderatetoadvancedchronicperiodontitisshowedaprogressionofperiodontitisovera4-monthperiod.Periodontitiswascharacterizedbyatleastsixsiteswitha probing depth ‡5 mm, clinical attachment level ‡3 mm, and radiographic bone loss. Gingival crevicularfluid was collected using a paper strip. The total protein concentration was determined. An enzyme-linkedimmunosorbentassaywasperformedtodeterminethetotalamountofMCP-3,andanimmunoWesternblotwas conducted to assess molecular MCP-3 forms. To determine the MCP-3 expression by immunohisto-chemistry, gingival biopsies were obtained from patients with chronic periodontitis and healthy subjectsduring third-molar extraction surgery. Statistical analyses were performed using statistical software. Datawere expressed as subject means – SD, using the x