Oxygen derived radicals($O_2;^-$, $H_2O_2$, and $OH^-$) are thought to play a role in a lot of human diseases. And it has been believed that antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase(SOD) and catalase could protect the tissues from damage resulting from the oxygen derived free radicals. The purpose of this study was performed to investigate the activity of the SOD(CuZn- and Mn-SOD) and catalase in inflammatory gingival tissues and the correlation between boold glucose level and antioxidants and age in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus(NI- DDM) patients. For this study, the patients were classified into normal, inflammatory, and diabetic, and ten their papillary bleeding index(PBI) and gingival index were checked. Subjects consisted of 11 healthy patients with no inflammatroy gingiva, 20 adult periodontitis patients, and 8 diabetic patients, aged 33 to 66(average: 44.62). The blood glucose level of diabetic group was ranged from 120ml/dl to 160ml/dl(physical status 0 : averge : 135.67ml/dl). Gingival tissues were surgically obtained from the patients during periodontal surgery, extraction, and clinical corwn lenghening procedure. The activity of CuZn and Mn- SOD and catalase in the gingival tissues was measured by using UV-spectrophotometer by the same methods that Crapo et al. And Aebi did, respectively. The results were as follows : 1. The Mn-SOD activity was significantly lower in inflammatory group in comparison to normal group(P<0.05), and the activities of antioxidants in diabetic group were not significant in comparison to normal inflammatory group(P>0.05). 2. The activities of antioxidants showed little variation among individuals of different ages (P>0.05). 3. The higher blood glucose level was, the higher gingival index was(P<0.05). 4. There was no correlation between blood glucoe level and activity of antioxidant in inflammatory gingival tissues of NIDDM patients(P>0.05). In conclusion, these results, within the limits of the present experiment, suggest that the activity of Mn-SOD might reflect the inflammatory status of gingival tissue, and the activity of antioxidants was independent of blood glucose level of diabetic patients in physical status 0.