Serum Levels of IL-22 in Patients with Oral Lichen Planus and Cutaneous Lichen Planus

Statement of the problem: lichen planus disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of mucosal and cutaneous tissues with yet unclear etiology and pathogenesis. cytokines play an important role in the initiation, maintenance of inflammatory and intercellular crosstalk. purpose: we assessed serum levels of il-22 in patients with oral and cutaneous lichen planus and made comparison with healthy individuals. materials and method: in this case-control study, peripheral blood samples of 40 patients with lichen planus disease, included two groups of oral lichen planus (n=20) and cutaneous lichen planus (n=20) were compared with 32 healthy individuals in this case-control study. serum samples were prepared from patients with lichen planus and il-22 concentration was measured in each serum sample by using a commercial elisa kit. the obtained data were then analyzed using the kruskal-wallis (one-way anova) test. results: the il-22 serum levels were significantly higher in patients with oral lichen planus compared to the healthy control group (p< 0.001). no statistically significant differences were observed in serum levels of il-22 in cutaneous lichen planus patients compared to the controls (p= 0.183). conclusion: increased il-22 serum levels in patients with oral lichen planus may play an important role in the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus. the administration of the recombinant or antagonist of il-22 could be a new therapeutic opportunity in the treatment of oral lichen planus.