Meta-Analysis of Assessment of Total Oxidative Stress and Total Antioxidant Capacity in Patients with Periodontitis

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis is intricately linked to oxidative stress-antioxidant (redox) imbalance. The antioxidant system scavenges the oxygen free radicals in biological fluids in patients with periodontitis. However, little is still known about the free radicals mediated oxidative stress and reductive ability of the antioxidant system. Thus, the present meta-analysis aims to quantitatively review the literature that assessed the oxidative stress marker total oxidative stress (TOS) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in various biological fluids of patients with periodontitis. Methodology. Electronic databases were searched for studies that assessed TOS and TAC levels in various biological samples of patients with periodontitis. RESULTS: From the 1,812 articles identified, 1,754 were excluded based on title and abstract screening due to irrelevance to the topic of interest. A full-text assessment of the remaining 58 articles led to the selection of 42 articles that satisfied the inclusion criteria. Of these, only 24 studies had consistent data for quantitative analysis. The periodontitis group displayed significantly elevated TOS levels (p < 0.05) in serum, gingival crevicular fluid (GCF), and saliva samples in the studies evaluated. In contrast, the periodontitis group exhibited significantly attenuated TAC levels (p < 0.01) compared to healthy controls in plasma, serum, and GCF samples of the studies evaluated, which was insignificant in salivary samples (p=0.433). At the same time, the periodontitis group displayed insignificantly elevated TAC levels after periodontal therapy (p=0.130). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis showed significantly higher TOS and lower TAC in periodontitis, reflecting the elevated oxidative stress level than the control group. Clinical Relevance. Scientific rationale for the study: The imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants (oxidative stress (OS)) plays a critical role in the onset and progression of periodontitis; the assessment of the relationship between OS-related biomarkers in regional samples and systemic samples of patients with periodontitis helps us to evaluate the periodontal disease progression. The OS biomarker levels can be used to assess periodontal disease and therapeutic efficacy.