Aim: To determine the mRNA expression levels of copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu, Zn-SOD) and manganese SOD (Mn-SOD) in healthy and inflamed human dental pulp tissue.
Methodology: Sixteen patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis (eight females and eight males) were selected for study. Normal healthy pulps were removed from extracted mandibular third molar teeth from 10 systemically healthy individuals (six females and four males). QRT-PCR analysis of Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD mRNA expression was carried out in 16 cases of irreversible pulpitis and in 10 cases of systemically healthy donors. The Shapiro-Wilk's test was used to test the normality of data, whereas the Mann-Whitney U-test was used to evaluate the significance of the differences between groups. Differences in the expression levels were considered to be statistically significant for P-values <0.05.
Results: A significant increase (P < 0.05) occurred in both Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD mRNA expression in cases of irreversible pulpitis. The increase in Mn-SOD level was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the change observed for Cu, Zn-SOD.
Conclusions: The development of pulpitis is associated with elevated transcription of both Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD; pulp tissue inflammation generated higher Mn-SOD transcription compared with Cu, Zn-SOD.