engleski

The significance of salivary interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha in patients with oral leukoplakia

It is well known that cytokines play an important role in the oral diseases. Furthermore, increased levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- &#945; ) have been reported in the patients with cancer and premalignant lesions such as oral lichen planus and oral submucous fibrosis. The aim of this study was to asses salivary IL-6 and TNF- &#945; levels in 30 patients with histopatologically confirmed leukoplakia (age range 24-78, mean 52.3 yrs) in comparison to the 34 controls (age range 27-79, mean 52 yrs). Salivary IL-6 and TNF-&#945; were determined by enzyme linked immunoadsorbent assay. Statistical analysis was performed by use of Mann-Whitney test for independent samples and values lower than 0.05 were considered as significant (p<0.05). Significantly higher levels of salivary IL-6 and TNF-&#945; in patients with oral leukoplakia when compared to the healthy controls were found. The levels of salivary IL-6 and TNF-&#945; did not correlate neither with the size of leukoplakia (lesions) nor with its localization regarding high and low risk sites for malignant transformation. Levels of salivary IL-6 and TNF- &#945; were not influenced by smoking habit. We can conclude that increased salivary IL-6 and TNF-&#945; might play certain role in oral leukoplakia.

leukoplakia; interleukin 6; tumor necrosis factor alpha; saliva

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