Análise da imunoexpressão de BAX e MMP-9 no líquen plano oral

Abstract

Background: Oral lichen planus is a relatively common immune-mediated chronic disease that affects the oral mucosa. Clinically, OLP is classified into six well-identified patterns: plaque, reticular, bullous, atrophic, papular, and erosive. The most common being the reticular and erosive types. The activation of TCD4+ lymphocytes in the OLP can induce keratinocytes to the process of apoptosis through the cytotoxic immune response. Thus, the present research consisted of a retrospective, descriptive, quantitative and comparative crosssectional study. Objective: to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of MMP-9 and Bax proteins in OLP. Methods: We used 20 cases of Inflammatory Fibrous Hyperplasia as control. The results were analyzed through the appropriate statistical tests and will be considered significant, values where p<0.05. Results: The immunoexpression of MMP-9 was significantly higher in keratinocytes and when the subtypes of oral lichen planus were analyzed, no statistical differences were observed between the reticular and erosive types for the proteins analyzed. Conclusions: With these observations, it is inferred that the alteration in the expression of the studied proteins suggests a disturbance in the proliferative and apoptotic mechanisms, which are associated with a pathological behavior of the oral mucosa, and consequently with a repercussion on the lesions of OLP, and we can also conclude that the immunoexpression of these proteins had no difference, when related to the reticular or erosive clinical type. This research aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the possible cellular mechanisms involved in the etiopathogenesis of this lesion, thus enabling the understanding of the clinical aspects of the pathology.