Figure 1. Quantification of MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 in tissue extract supernatants and gingival crevicular fluid samples from healthy and diseased patients. Evaluations were performed by means of a sandwich ELISA assay in tissue extract supernatants (TES/A) and gingival crevicular fluid samples (GCFs/B). Results were obtained from three different experiments (n = 3) and expressed as mean ± SE of µg of antigen/mg of total proteins. (*) indicated that the Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test showed a statistically significant difference between diseased and healthy tissue extract supernatants (p < 0.003) and between diseased and healthy gingival crevicular fluid samples (p < 0.003).