ABSTRACT
Statement of the Problem: Oral lichen planus is a common mucocutaneous lesion with a chronic inflammatory process mediated by immune factors while a few cases of the disease become malignant
Purpose: This study aimed to determine the frequency of p53 marker as a tumor suppressor in patients with erosive and non-erosive oral lichen planus [OLP] by using immunohistochemical methods
Materials and Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study investigated the p53 expression in 16 erosive OLP, 16 non-erosive OLP samples, and 8 samples of normal oral mucosa through immunohistochemistry. The percentage of stained cells in basal and suprabasal layers, and inflammatory infiltrate were graded according to the degree of staining; if 0%, <10%, 10-25%, and >50% of the cells were stained, they were considered as [-], [+], [++], [+++] and [++++], respectively. The obtained data was statistically analyzed and compared by using Chi square and Fisher's exact test
Results: The mean percentage of p53 positive cells in erosive OLP [34.5+/-14.2] was considerably higher than that in non-erosive OLP [23.8+/-10.4] and normal mucosa [17.5+/-17]. There was a significant difference among the three groups of erosive, non-erosive and control in terms of staining intensity. No significant difference existed between the patients' age and sex in the two OLP groups
Conclusion: The increased incidence of p53 from normal mucosa to erosive OLP indicated the difference between biological behavior of erosive and non-erosive OLP. It can be claimed that the erosive OLP has great premalignant potential compared with the non-erosive one