immunohistochemical evaluation of transforming growth factor-β expression in oral lichen planus

Background: in oral lichen planus (olp), which is a persistent inflammatory condition of the autoimmune system, cytotoxic t lymphocytes are triggered against epithelial cells. olp resists treatment more than its cutaneous counterpart and potentially transforms into malignancy as oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc). transforming growth factor β (tgf-β) is produced by various cells, such as leukocytes and epithelial cells, whereby epithelial-mesenchymal-epithelialn (emt) forms the phenotype of invasive cancerous cells and promotes tumors.objectives: we investigated the role of tgf-β in the pathogenesis and biological behavior of dysplastic and non-dysplastic olp.methods: thirty samples of erosive/atrophic olp (15 dysplastic and 15 non-dysplastic) and 10 samples of normal mucosa of the oral cavity were immunohistochemically examined for the expression of tgf-β. statistical analysis was performed using the kruskal-wallis and chi-squared tests.results: tgf-β expressed to varying degrees in the epithelium of the studied groups. the groups significantly differed in terms of the expression of tgf-β. in pairwise comparisons, the dysplastic olp group showed significantly higher immunoreactivity than the normal and non-dysplastic groups, although there was no significant difference between the normal and non-dysplastic olp groups. the expression of tgf-β in the sub-epithelial lymphocytes of the dysplastic and non-dysplastic olp groups showed a statistically significant difference.conclusions: according to the results, tgf-β, as a marker of the inflammatory process in chronic inflammatory conditions, was expressed in epithelial cells and sub-epithelial lymphocytes of all olps. this suggests a possible role of this marker in the pathogenesis of olp. in addition, the increased expression of tgf-β, a marker also involved in carcinogenesis, in the epithelial keratinocytes indicates the role it might play in the development of carcinoma in olp.