ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Mucosal Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicImmunology in Oral DiseasesView all 11 articles
Effects of Aging on Host Responses in Gingival Crevicular Fluid in Natural Gingivitis
Provisionally accepted
- University of Washington, Seattle, United States
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ABSTRACT (188 words) Aim. This study compared host responses against natural gingivitis in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) in young and aged periodontium. Materials and Methods. This cross-sectional study recruited two patient populations with natural gingivitis in young (18-35 years old) and elder cohorts (36-75 years old). GCF samples were analyzed for 39 inflammatory and tissue remodeling mediators using bead-based multiplex immunoassays. Independent t-tests with false discovery rate adjustments were used to compare mediator expressions between groups. Results. Forty patients were enrolled in these comparisons, including young patients (n=22) and elder patients (n=18). In comparison with the young group, the elder group had greater clinical attachment loss and higher expression of MPO (p<0.001), IL-1β (p<0.05), IL-6 (p<0.05), and IL-8 (p<0.05). Despite the ratio of MMP-8/TIMP-1 being not significantly different (p>0.05), the young group had greater ratio of MMP-9/TIMP-1 than old group (p<0.01). Conclusion. The current findings reveal that the inflammatory profiles of young and elder cohorts with natural gingivitis are distinct. The young cohort with natural gingivitis demonstrated lower disease susceptibility and more robust tissue turnover, whereas the aged periodontium was characterized by higher susceptibility to disease and diminished healing capacity.
Keywords: age, Cytokines, Gingivitis, Immune System, Metalloproteinases
Received: 05 Dec 2025; Accepted: 03 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Hsu, An, Hudson, Daubert and Darveau. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yung-Ting Hsu
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