Potential gingival crevicular fluid and serum biomarkers by stage of HIV infection

•Proposed oral biomarkers correlated with systemic and oral clinical variables in HIV.•Cytokines expression vary among subjects in a particular HIV/ART stage.•HIV stage, ART, and age are not self-reliant risk factors for periodontal breakdown.•IL-8, MCP-1 and GM-CSF may be useful biomarkers in HIV infection and ART use.•G-CSF and INF-γ were found inversely associated with CD4+ T-cell count. This study evaluates the potential of gingival crevicular fluid and serum cytokines as HIV stage biomarkers. Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and serum samples from 78 HIV-positive adult male subjects (cases) and 39 HIV-negative male subjects (controls) from Mexico were examined for 17 cytokines using multiplex ELISA. Participants were divided into five subgroups by HIV stage of infection on age-specific CD4+ T-lymphocyte count and antiretroviral therapy (ART), and further correlated to the cytokine levels. GCF concentrations of IL-6, IL-7, IL-10, IL-12, G-CSF and MCP-1, as well as serum concentrations of IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-6 showed a statistically significant difference among subgroups. We found a significant effect size correlation on cytokines expression levels. Subjects who were not in ART showed significantly higher levels of some of the analyzed cytokines compared to the rest. We found that GCF IL-8 was a significant predictor for the Non-ART HIV status (p