salivary levels of human neutrophil peptide (hnp) 1-3 in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis and behçet’s disease: a cross-sectional study in iran

Background:recurrent oral ulcers constitute the most common complaint of patients with behçet’s disease (bd) and recurrent aphthous stomatitis (ras). enhanced innate immune response and neutrophilic activity might be a possible etiopathogenesis of bd. this study aimed to determine the significance of salivary hnp 1-3 in bd and ras patients and detect their correlation with different clinical presentations, disease activity, and characteristics of oral ulcers.methods:this cross-sectional study included 25 bd patients and 25 ras patients as well as 25 healthy participants. 5 cc of unstimulated saliva were collected and levels of hnp 1-3 were measured by elisa. other data were obtained through interviews, examination, and reviews of medical records. spss 25.0 was used to analyze the data.results:salivary hnp 1-3 levels were not significantly different between the study groups (p=0.282). duration of oral ulcers did not correlate with hnp 1-3 levels in ras and bd patients (p>0.05). also, bd patients with involvements other than oral ulcers were not found to have different levels of hnp 1-3 comparing to those who did not manifest these conditions.conclusions:the validity of hnp 1-3 to be used as a probable biological marker for evaluation, diagnosis, and estimation of disease activity in patients with bd and ras is still questionable due to our results.