Treatment of Periodontal Inflammation in Diabetic Rats with Injectable IL-1Ra Thermosensitive Hydrogel

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease in which dental plaque plays a key role. Hyperglycemia can promote inflammatory cells to secrete various inflammatory factors, causing the destruction of periodontal tissues and leading to the sustained development of periodontitis and prolonged and unhealed periodontal tissues. IL-1β is an important prophase inflammatory factor, which participates in the pathophysiological process of periodontitis. Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), a natural inhibitor of IL-1, can also reduce the levels of other cytokines, including TNF-α and IL-6, and the balance between IL-1Ra and IL-1β is one of the primary factors affecting chronic periodontitis(CP). In this experiment, a temperature-sensitive hydrogel loaded with IL-1Ra was prepared and characterized, and its anti-inflammatory properties were evaluated. The hydrogel could be injected locally, and the results showed that it had good morphology, was nontoxic both in vivo and in vitro, and could realize sustained drug release. Histological evaluation and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) showed that IL-1Ra-loaded thermosensitive hydrogel could effectively inhibit periodontal inflammation in diabetic rats, and played a significant role in relieving hyperglycemia. Therefore, IL-1Ra-loaded thermosensitive hydrogel may be an effective method to treat periodontitis with diabetes. Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Science and Technology Research Project of Education Department of Jilin Province(JJKH20211218KJ),"13th Five-Year plan" science and technology project of Education Department of Jilin Province(JJKH20201115KJ). Declaration of Interests: The authors report no declarations of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: This experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University,China, and all animal experiments followed the National Institute of Health (NIH) guidelines on laboratory animal care and use (ARRIVE guidelines).