Possible salivary and serum biomarkers for oral lichen planus

Abstract

There are few reports concerning the potential for clinical application of oxidative stress (OS) and collagen degradation markers in oral lichen planus (OLP) patients. We investigated the possibility of using some disease-related biomarkers in saliva and serum of OLP patients. Our study included 30 patients with OLP and 30 controls. We evaluated serum and salivary OS biomarkers including 8-OHdG, MDA, uric acid, TAC and GPx. We also investigated collagen degradation markers such as CTX I and MMP-8. We found significantly increased salivary levels of MMP-8 and CTX I in the OLP group compared to controls and significant differences between the OLP and control groups in serum and saliva for 8-OHdG, MDA (significantly increased), uric acid, TAC and GPx (significantly reduced). Currently there are no criteria for evaluating which OLP patients have a greater risk of malignant transformation. In addition to clinical surveillance, the serum and salivary biomarkers that we evaluated may be useful biomarkers for monitoring OLP patients in the future.

Key words::

• oral lichen planus
• oxidative stress
• saliva

Acknowledgments

Our investigation was supported by the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed by the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government under contract number POSDRU/6/1.5/S/S17.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.