Oral administration of milk from cows immunized with human intestinal bacteria leads to significant improvements of symptoms and signs in patients with oral submucous fibrosis.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have shown that the local and systemic upregulation of fibrogenic cytokines and downregulation of antifibrotic cytokine are central to the pathogenesis of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF). The milk from cows immunized with human intestinal bacteria (immune milk) contains an anti-inflammatory component that may suppress the inflammatory reaction and modulate cytokine production. Therefore, it was decided to test whether immune milk may have some beneficial effects on controlling the symptoms and signs in OSF patients.


METHODS
In this preliminary study, 26 OSF patients who received immune milk treatment (45 g of immune milk powder twice a day) for 3 months and oral habit intervention were included in the experimental group. Another 20 OSF patients who received only oral habit intervention served as the control group.


RESULTS
We found that the interincisor distance was significantly improved (> or =3 mm of the baseline measurement) in 18 of the 26 (69.2%) OSF patients in the experimental group at exit. However, in the control group none of the OSF patients had an increase in interincisor distance greater than 2 mm. In addition, disappearance or significant improvement of symptoms at exit was observed in 80% (16/20) of the patients with intolerance to spicy foods (P < 0.001) and 72.2% (13/18) of the patients with xerostomia (P < 0.005) in the experimental group, compared with 17.6% (3/17) of the patients with improvement of intolerance to spicy foods and 15.4% (2/13) of the patients with improvement of xerostomia in the control group. Partial regression of concomitant oral leukoplakia or erythroplakia (judged from the size reduction of the lesions) at exit was noted in 71.4% (5/7) of the patients in the experimental group (P < 0.05), compared with none (0/5) of the patients with improvement in the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that oral administration of immune milk leads to significant improvements of symptoms and signs in OSF patients.
Tai
Y S
YS
School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Liu
B Y
BY
Wang
J T
JT
Sun
A
A
Kwan
H W
HW
Chiang
C P
CP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000628:therapy; D000818:Animals; D001114:Areca / Q000009:adverse effects; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002417:Cattle / Q000276:immunology; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008892:Milk / Q000276:immunology*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D009914:Oral Submucous Fibrosis / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D019226:Oral Ulcer / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000628:therapy; D017365:Spices / Q000009:adverse effects; D014313:Trismus / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D014987:Xerostomia / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy
D001428:Bacterial Vaccines