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Activity and levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in saliva of children and young adults with dental caries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

M. A. Alarcón-Sánchez, J. Becerra-Ruíz, Anna A Avetisyan, A. Heboyan

BMC Oral Health, 2024

21 citations

Abstract

Cytokines play an important role in the immunopathogenesis of dental caries. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out with the following three objectives: 1)To deepen and discuss through a comprehensive analysis of the literature the effects of dental caries on the activity and levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in saliva of children and young adults, 2)To compare the levels of this cytokines in saliva of the exposure group (moderate-severe dental caries) with the control group (caries-free or mild dental caries), and 3)To determine whether the levels of these cytokines could be used as a complementary clinical diagnostic tool to assess the severity of dental caries. The protocol followed PRISMA and Cochrane guidelines and was registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MF74V. A digital search was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus, and Google Schoolar databases from February 15th, 2012, to January 13th, 2024. The methodological validity of the selected studies was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) tool. A meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model to evaluate the association between dental caries/health, and the concentration of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8. The search strategy provided a total of 126 articles, of which 15 investigations met the inclusion criteria. The total number of patients studied was 1,148, of which 743 represented the case/exposure group, and 405 represented the control group.…

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