MMP8 and periodontitis: In line with previous studies (Shimada et al., 2010; Mohammad and Aziz, 2018; Leira et al., 2020; Khuda et al., 2021; Koppolu et al., 2021; Luchian et al., 2022), the results of the present study showed that the EP group had significantly higher serum levels of IL-6, CRP, MMP-8, and ALP and lower levels of IL-10 than the control group confirming that the experimental model used was able to induce experimental periodontitis.