  Citation: Teixeira, Q.E.; Ferreira, D.d.C.; da Silva, A.M.P.; Gonçalves, L.S.; Pires, F.R.; Carrouel, F.; Bourgeois, D.; Sufiawati, I.; Armada, L. Aging as a Risk Factor on the Immunoexpression of Pro- Inflammatory IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α Cytokines in Chronic Apical Periodontitis Lesions. Biology 2022, 11, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/ biology11010014 Academic Editor: Guo-Hao Lin Received: 12 November 2021 Accepted: 20 December 2021 Published: 23 December 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). biology Article Aging as a Risk Factor on the Immunoexpression of Pro-Inflammatory IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α Cytokines in Chronic Apical Periodontitis Lesions Quésia Euclides Teixeira 1 , Dennis de Carvalho Ferreira 1 , Alexandre Marques Paes da Silva 1 , Lucio Souza Gonçalves 1 , Fabio Ramoa Pires 1 , Florence Carrouel 2, * , Denis Bourgeois 2 , Irna Sufiawati 3 and Luciana Armada 1, * 1 Postgraduate Program in Dentistry, Estácio de Sá University, Rio de Janeiro 22790-710, Brazil; quesiaeuclides@yahoo.com (Q.E.T.); denniscf@gmail.com (D.d.C.F.); xandemps@hotmail.com (A.M.P.d.S.); luciogoncalves@yahoo.com.br (L.S.G.); ramoafop@yahoo.com (F.R.P.) 2 Health, Systemic, Process (P2S), UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France; denis.bourgeois@univ-lyon1.fr 3 Department of Oral Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung 40132, Indonesia; irna.sufiawati@fkg.unpad.ac.id * Correspondence: florence.carrouel@univ-lyon1.fr (F.C.); luadias@hotmail.com (L.A.); Tel.: +55-21-2497-898 (L.A.) Simple Summary: Apical periodontitis often manifests as a chronic and asymptomatic disease. The formation of chronic apical periodontitis lesion (CAPL) occurs due an imbalance between microorganisms in a root canal system and a host’s immune response. The pro-inflammatory characteristic of periapical granulomas has been established; increased IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α has been documented. In humans over 65 years of age, the immune system becomes more fragile, including a persistent inflammatory response, making them more susceptible to reactivation of latent viruses, bacterial and viral pathogens, autoimmune diseases, opportunistic infections and neoplasms. The question of this study is as follows: in aging adults, do chronic apical periodontitis lesions as biomarkers have a risk effect on the immunoexpression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) compared to adults? The results demonstrated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNFα showed higher expression in the CAPL of the elderly than in the adult control group, thus suggesting that aging could be considered a modifier of periradicular disease. However, although aging is not the main cause for the development of CAPL, it seems to be able to influence its evolution. However, further elaborate research studies/analyses to elucidate the reasons and consequences of inflammation in the elderly are recommended. Abstract: Persistent inflammatory responses in the elderly may act as modifiers on the progression and repair of chronic apical periodontitis lesions (CAPLs). While the involvement of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in inflammatory responses and, particularly, in CAPL has been documented, their expression in elderly patients needs to be further characterized. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines in CAPL from elderly individuals with young/middle-aged individuals. Thirty CAPL (15 cysts and 15 granulomas) from elderly patients (>60 years) and 30 CAPL (15 cysts and 15 granuloma) from young/middle-aged individuals (20–56 years) were selected. Immunohistochemical reactions were performed against IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α. The slides were subdivided into five high-magnification fields and analyzed. The number of positive stains was evaluated for each antibody. There was no significant difference between the cytokines when the cysts and granuloma were compared in the two groups. In the young/middle-aged, only IL-1β showed a difference and was significantly higher in granulomas (p = 0.019). CAPL pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the elderly were significantly higher than in young/middle-aged individuals (p < 0.05). The pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly higher in CAPL in the elderly compared with the young/middle-aged group. Further elaborate research studies/analyses to elucidate the reasons for and consequences of inflammation in the elderly are recommended. Biology 2022, 11, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11010014 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology