Ylva-Britt Wahlin

Psychological health in patients with genital and oral erosive lichen planus

Background  Erosive lichen planus is a severe, recurrent and recalcitrant disease that affects several mucosal areas, mostly the genital area and the mouth, but also, for example, the oesophagus and perianal area. The disease causes serious symptoms, because of the raw, de‐epithelialized mucosa and healing with scars/adhesions, which affect the patients life in many ways. It causes, for example, difficulties in eating, drinking and going to the bathroom. Treatment is complicated and, so far, few therapeutic drugs other than steroids have been reported.

Altered expression of miR-21, miR-125b, and miR-203 indicates a role for these microRNAs in oral lichen planus

BACKGROUND Oral lichen planus (OLP), which is a chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa with unknown etiology, affects about 2% of the population. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs involved in normal processes such as development and differentiation as well as progression of human diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of miR-21, miR-125b, and miR-203 and to compare RNA levels of their potential targets, the tumor suppressor p53 and its relative p63, both known to be deregulated in OLP. METHODS In biopsies from 20 patients with OLP and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls, epithelium was laser dissected and analyzed for the expression of miR-21, miR-125b, miR-203, p53, and p63 using qRT/PCR. RESULTS Increased expression of miR-21 and miR-203, decreased expression of miR-125, and down-regulation of p53 and ΔNp63 RNA were seen in OLP compared to normal oral mucosa. When comparing microRNA expression to levels of p53 and p63 RNA, a significant negative correlation was seen between ΔNp63 and miR-203 and between miR-21 and p53, respectively. CONCLUSION Results indicate a role for the studied microRNAs in changes seen in OLP.

Increased levels of COX‐2 in oral lichen planus supports an autoimmune cause of the disease

Background  Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease for which the pathogenesis is not fully understood. OLP has autoimmune features and auto immunity has been suggested as a potential cause, whereas WHO has classified OLP as a premalignant condition. Association between chronic inflammation and cancer is known and chronic inflammation is one of the characteristics of OLP. A protein connected to inflammation and suggested to be involved in cancer development is cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) which can be inhibited by microRNA‐26b (miR‐26b).

The use of a novel ELISA method for detection of antibodies against p63 in sera from patients diagnosed with oral and/or genital and skin lichen planus.

Lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease of mucosa and skin affecting approximately 1-2% of the adult population. Autoimmunity has been implicated in the etiology of this disease, and recently we detected antibodies directed against all six p63 isoforms in sera from 2 out of 20 patients diagnosed with oral lichen planus (OLP) using Western blot analysis. Here we have developed an ELISA method for screening sera for presence of autoantibodies directed against p63. Using the same sera as previously analysed, we show that the optical density ratios for sera from the two patients with known autoantibodies was considerably higher compared to mean optical density ratios for all samples as well as controls analysed. Applying this novel ELISA technique for screening of sera from an additional group of 46 patients with oral and/or genital or skin lichen and 43 matched controls, we detected another three patients with autoantibodies against the p63 proteins. These data are discussed together with the observation that all five patients with detectable p63 autoantibodies from our two studies had clinically severe disease symptoms.

Tricyclic Antidepressants and Dental Caries in Children

Cyclic antidepressant treatment in adults is reported to increase caries activity. The aim of this study has been to evaluate if such treatment also causes a higher frequency of dental caries in children. Children with enuresis treated with tricyclic antidepressants (AD) were compared to matched controls and to enuretic children without antidepressant treatment. Dental records and radiographs were examined concerning caries activity. During the treatment period the mean caries activity was higher in the group of children treated with AD for 1 month or longer compared to both controls and enuretics without pharmacological treatment. These findings show the need to send the child to a dentist for optimal caries prophylaxis at the start of antidepressant treatment.

Genes involved in epithelial differentiation and development are differentially expressed in oral and genital lichen planus epithelium compared to normal epithelium.

Lichen planus (LP) is a chronic mucocutaneous disease with unknown cause. Patients with LP often have both oral and genital lesions, but these conditions are often considered as separate diseases and treated accordingly. To find out which genes are differently expressed in mucosal LP compared to normal mucosa and establish whether oral and genital LP are in fact the same disease, whole genome expression analysis was performed on epithelium from 13 patients diagnosed with oral and/or genital LP and normal controls. For confirmation of keratin 4 and corneodesmosin expression, quantitative reverse-transcription PCR and immunohistochemistry were used. Many genes involved in epithelial development and differentiation are differently expressed in epithelium from LP compared to normal epithelium. Several of the differentially expressed genes are common for oral and genital LP and the same biological processes are altered which supports the fact that oral and genital LP are manifestations of the same disease. The change in gene expression indicates that differentiation is altered leading to changes in the epithelial barrier.

Downregulation of TAp63 and unaffected levels of p63beta distinguishes oral wounds from SCCHN.

No abstract available.