To investigate the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and -8 in patients with chronic periodontal disease and acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) and the possible relationship between IL-6 and IL-8 with two diseases. A total of 40 cases of healthy subjects (control group 1) from graduate school of Anhui Medical University, and 120 cases (40 cases in each of the 3 groups) of eligible patients were collected, of which 40 were patients with chronic periodontal disease and AECOPD (experimental group) from Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University and Anhui NO.2 Provincial Peoples Hospital, 40 were patients with chronic periodontal disease (control group 2) from Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 40 were patients with AECOPD (control group 3) from Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. The clinical indicators of all subjects were collected, including tooth mobility degree, probing depth (PD), bleeding index (BI), attachment level (AL), vital capacity max (VC Max), forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) and forced expiratory volume in first second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-8 in the subjects of four groups. The attachment levels had no significant differences between experimental group and control group 2 (>0.05). The pulmonary function indices of experimental group including VC MAX% pre[(56.1±11.1)%], FEV1 %pre [(44.8±12.2)%], FEV1/FVC(%) [(56.8±11.4)%] were significantly different from those in control group 3 [(66.3±10.1)%, (53.0±10.4)%, (66.5±8.2)%, respectively]. The IL-6 levels of experimental group, control groups 1, 2 and 3 were (14.4±3.9), (2.1±1.1), (4.8±1.9) and (8.6±1.4) ng/L, respectively. And the IL-8 levels were (35.3±33.3), (4.8±1.7), (9.7±3.3) and (15.6±9.6) ng/L. In experimental group the IL-6 and IL-8 levels were significantly higher than those in control groups 1, 2, and 3 (<0.01). In control group 2 and 3 the IL-6 and IL-8 levels were significantly higher than that in control group 1 (< 0.01). The IL-6 and IL-8 levels of experimental group were significantly increased. IL-6 and IL-8 may be associated with the development of periodontal disease and AECOPD closely.