No evidence for Helicobacter pylori in oral lichen planus.

OBJECTIVES

Oral lichen planus is a T-cell-mediated mucosal disease of unknown etiology. Numerous predisposing factors have been put forward in the etiology of this disease. This includes stress, drugs, genetic susceptibility, certain viruses, and bacterial infections. Recently, there have been studies published on possible role of Helicobacter pylori infection in pathogenesis of mucocutaneous diseases including oral lichen planus (OLP). The aim of this study was to detect immunohistochemically the presence of Helicobacter pylori in oral lichen planus.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 50 cases of OLP and 10 cases of normal buccal mucosal biopsies and 6 endoscopic biopsies of patients with peptic ulcer (control group) were sectioned and stained by hematoxylin and eosin. Serial sections of same were stained immunohistochemically using Anti-Helicobacter pylori antibody and observed under microscope for presence or absence of Helicobacter pylori.

RESULTS

Except for the control group, none of the cases of OLP and normal buccal mucosal biopsies showed positivity for Helicobacter pylori.

CONCLUSION

As we did not detect the presence of Helicobacter pylori in any of the OLP cases, we question the role of these organisms in the pathogenesis of OLP planus if any.