PERP mRNA is overexpressed in cutaneous and oral lichen planus

Background lichen planus (lp) is a chronic inflammatory mucocutaneous disease. the classic cutaneous lp (clp) is characterized by itchy flat-topped violaceous polygonal papules. oral lp (olp) is considered to be a precancerous condition. p53 apoptosis effector related to peripheral myelin protein 22 (perp) is a tetraspan membrane protein, which was originally identified as a transcriptional target of the p53 tumor suppressor gene. perp deficiency results in tumorigenesis. objective in this study, we sought to evaluate the expression of perp mrna in lp patients and compare the expression levels between clp and olp patients. patients and methods a total of 15 clp patients, eight olp patients, and 10 sex-matched and age-matched controls were included in this case–control study. punch-skin biopsies were obtained from the skin or oral mucosa of all patients. the expression level of perp mrna was quantitatively evaluated using pcr. results on comparing the results of perp mrna in lp patients with those of their matching controls, perp mrna level was found to be significantly higher in lp patients (po0.0001). in contrast, on comparing the expression levels of perp mrna between clp and olp patients, no significant difference was observed (p= 0.09). conclusion perp mrna is highly expressed in lp patients compared with controls.