engleski

Association of HLA-DRB1 alleles with oral lichen planus (OLP) in southern Croatia region

Aim: Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is a highly polymorphic family of genes which has been linked with various immune and autoimmune diseases. Lichen planus is a chronic autoimmune, mucocutaneous disease that affects the oral mucosa as well as the skin, genital mucosa and other sites. There are several subtypes of LP based on location of clinical presentation of the disease. In this study we concentrated on oral lichen planus (OLP), one of the most common dermatological diseases manifested in oral cavity. The aetiology of OLP is unknown, however, it is considered that the pathogenesis of the disease is related to T- cell-mediated response. Since previous reports have shown a correlation between HLA-DRB1 alleles with subtypes of lichen planus in different populations, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible association of these alleles with OLP among patients from southern Croatia (SC) region. Methods: The group of patients included 55 patients clinically diagnosed with oral lichen planus. Control group consisted of 99 healthy blood donors from SC. Genotyping for alleles of HLA- DRB1 loci was performed using sequence-specific oligonucleotide probing method on a Luminex platform using commercial kits (Immucor HLA SSO Typing kits). Allele frequencies in both group of patients and control group were calculated by direct counting and compared for significance by Fisher’s exact test (statistical significance was considered at p<0, 05). Results: Comparisons between HLA-DRB1 allele frequencies in control and patient groups showed significant increase of HLA- DRB1*01 allele frequency (9, 6 % vs 17, 3%, p=0, 039). No differences were found between other HLA alleles and the disease, although we noticed slight increase in HLA-DRB1*03 and DRB1*07 alleles, while the frequency of HLA- DRB1*11 was lower in group of patients. Conclusion: In this study we detected significant increase in HLA-DRB1*01 allele frequency in a group of patients with OLP, which is in line with the previous results in Mexican, Italian and American populations. These results indicate a possible correlation between HLA-DRB1*01 allele and OLP and could be considered as a useful tool in differential diagnosis of OLP from other oral cavity diseases. Given the relatively small sample number of patients involved in this study further investigation with a larger sample number from different populations is needed.

Oral lichen planus ; HLA-DRB1 ; southern Croatia

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