title: Levamisole can reduce the high serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha level to a normal level in patients with erosive oral lichen planus.
abstract: In this study, we measured the baseline serum levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in 158 patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) and in 54 normal control subjects. In total, 60 patients with erosive OLP (EOLP) with relatively high TNF-alpha levels were treated with levamisole and the serum TNF-alpha levels measured after treatment. We found that the mean +/- SD serum level of TNF-alpha in patients with either type of EOLP (12.0 +/- 1.7 pg/mL, P<0.005), major EOLP (15.5 +/- 4.4 pg/mL, P<0.001), minor EOLP (11.1 +/- 1.8 pg/mL, P<0.01), or nonerosive OLP (6.1 +/- 1.7 pg/mL, P<0.05) was significantly higher than that (3.8 +/- 0.2 pg/mL) of normal control subjects. Treatment with levamisole for a period of 0.5-7.5 months significantly reduced the mean serum TNF-alpha level from 22.6 +/- 3.4 pg/mL to 6.2 +/- 0.8 pg/mL (P<0.001) in 60 patients with EOLP. We conclude that levamisole can reduce high serum TNF-alpha levels to normal in patients with EOLP.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Chia
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Chiang
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007978:Levamisole / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017676:Lichen Planus, Oral / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D007978:Levamisole