ABSTRACT
This study aimed to monitor chondroitin sulphate (CS; WF6 epitope) levels in crevicular fluid around maxillary molars and miniscrew implants during orthodontic molar intrusion. One miniscrew implant was placed in the midpalatal area of each of ten patients with open skeletal configurations, who required orthodontic molar intrusion, and two Sentalloy® closed-coil springs (100 g) were used for molar intrusion. Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) around experimental and control molars, and peri-miniscrew implant crevicular fluid (PMICF) were collected before and during load application. Competitive ELISA with monoclonal antibody WF6 and colorimetric protein assay were used to detect CS (WF6 epitope), and total protein concentration, respectively.The results showed that the median CS (WF6 epitope) levels around experimental molars during the loaded period (12 weeks) (2.099 ng/µg of total protein) and those during each two-week interval of the loaded period (1.952, 1.854, 2.604, 2.414, 1.844, 1.44 ng/ µg of total protein respectively) were significantly greater than those during the unloaded period (2 weeks) (0.832 ng/ µg of total protein) (P