Lichen planus--specific antigen in oral lichen planus and oral lichenoid drug eruptions.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the usefulness of lichen planus-specific antigen as a marker to distinguish idiopathic oral lichen planus from oral lichenoid drug eruptions.

STUDY

DESIGN

Biopsy samples were taken from 6 patients with oral lichenoid drug eruptions and 6 patients with idiopathic oral lichen planus. Each biopsy sample was examined for the presence of lichen planus-specific antigen by using a modification of a previously described immunofluorescence method that uses autologous serum and also allogenic sera from the remaining 11 cases.

RESULTS

All autologous and allogenic immunofluorescence tests showed negative findings for lichen planus-specific antigen.

CONCLUSIONS

Lichen planus-specific antigen is not a useful marker to distinguish oral lichenoid drug eruptions from idiopathic lichen planus. This finding is in contrast with our findings in an earlier study of basal cell cytoplasmic autoantibodies.