Lu Rui, Zhang Jing, Sun Wei, Du Gefei, Zhou Gang
The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) and Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, PR China; Department of Oral Medicine, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
J Oral Pathol Med. 2015 Jan;44(1):1-14. doi: 10.1111/jop.12142. Epub 2013 Dec 16.
Cytokines are powerful mediators which play a central role in both innate and adapted immune responses. Aberrant productions of cytokines may lead to the onset of immune deficiency, allergy or autoimmunity, which are involved in the mechanisms of various immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammation disease affecting the oral mucosa with unknown aetiology. Previous studies have described the abnormal expression patterns of various inflammation-related cytokines, such as IL-1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 17, 18, TGF-β, IFN-γ and TNF-α, in lesions, saliva, serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with OLP, which may reflect the immune dysregulation status and emerge as central players in the immunopathogenesis of OLP. Besides, the gene polymorphisms of several cytokines such as IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-4, IL-10 have been found to be involved in the susceptibility of OLP. In this review, we gave a brief introduction of the characteristics and biological functions of these inflammation-related cytokines and summarized for the first time the current knowledge on the involvement of inflammation-related cytokines in OLP. Further research on the exact roles of these cytokines will aid the understanding of the pathogenesis and the identification of novel therapeutic approaches of OLP.
细胞因子是强大的介质，在先天性免疫反应和适应性免疫反应中都发挥着核心作用。细胞因子的异常产生可能导致免疫缺陷、过敏或自身免疫的发生，这些都与各种免疫介导的炎症性疾病的机制有关。口腔扁平苔藓（OLP）是一种影响口腔黏膜的慢性炎症性疾病，病因不明。先前的研究描述了OLP患者病变组织、唾液、血清和外周血单核细胞中各种炎症相关细胞因子，如白细胞介素-1、2、4、5、6、8、10、12、17、18、转化生长因子-β、干扰素-γ和肿瘤坏死因子-α的异常表达模式，这些可能反映了免疫失调状态，并在OLP的免疫发病机制中成为关键因素。此外，已发现几种细胞因子如干扰素-γ、肿瘤坏死因子-α、白细胞介素-4、白细胞介素-10的基因多态性与OLP的易感性有关。在本综述中，我们简要介绍了这些炎症相关细胞因子的特征和生物学功能，并首次总结了目前关于炎症相关细胞因子在OLP中作用的知识。对这些细胞因子确切作用的进一步研究将有助于理解OLP的发病机制并确定新的治疗方法。
