Assessment of the peripheral immunocompetent cells in patients with reticular and atrophic-erosive lichen planus.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the cellular and humoral immunity in patients with reticular and atrophic-erosive oral lichen planus (OLP).

STUDY DESIGN

Lymphocyte phenotype analysis of 50 patients with OLP and 16 control subjects was performed by means of flow cytometry. The results were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS

In the patient group the percentage of naïve helper T cells was significantly decreased, while that of memory cells was increased, resulting in a significantly higher ratio of memory to naïve cells in the OLP group than in the control group. In the group of patients with atrophic-erosive OLP, the percentages of cytotoxic/suppressor T cells and cytotoxic/suppressor naïve T cells were found to be slightly decreased.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that the relative ratio of immunocompetent cells in the peripheral blood is altered in patients with lichen planus and that the exact character of these disturbances depends on OLP form. Some of the alterations observed in these patients are typical to autoimmune diseases, thus promoting the concept of autoimmune etiopathogenesis of lichen planus.