Serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) in patients with oral lichen planus.

BACKGROUND

Considerable evidence indicates that serotonergic mechanisms, particularly the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) may be involved in psychiatric alterations. Recent findings have demonstrated that depression and stress are influenced by polymorphism of the promoter region of 5-HTT (5-HTTLPR) and that the short allele (S) is associated with reduced transcriptional efficiency resulting in reduced serotonin expression and uptake. As psychiatric and genetic factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus (OLP), the purpose of the present study was to investigate 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in patients with OLP compared to control subjects.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

Fifty-four subjects affected by OLP and 54 healthy volunteers were genotyped at 5-HTTLPR. The chi-squared test was used for statistical analysis. To investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms and risk of OLP, binary logistic regression models were fitted.

RESULTS

No statistical difference was observed between the genotype and allele frequency in the group of OLP and controls (p=0.51). Moreover no association between 5HTTLPR alleles and OLP was found in the multivariate analyses.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrates that polymorphism on the 5-HTTLPR is not associated with OLP pathogenesis.