Local immune alterations in oral mucosa of the edentulous patients; possible cause of teeth loss?
Edentulous patients represent a difficult group of patients, especially in those cases when restorative prostheses are tempted on few remaining elements that eventually will be lost.


METHODS
We performed a comparative histopathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis of 20 oral mucosa biopsies in total edentulous patients (15 cases - group A) and ofnontumoral mucosa in oncologic patients (5 cases - group B, control).


RESULTS
In group A the inflammatory infiltrate was dominated by the presence of numerous plasma cells (80%) and in 60% of the cases more numerous T cells than B cells were identified. We noticed various aspects of inflammatory infiltrate distribution in cases with epithelial ulceration (either CD8+ T cells intraepithelial and CD4+ T cells beneath the epithelium and perivascular or both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in both lamina propria and intraepithelial location). 5 of seven cases which included salivary gland tissue revealed moderately to severe inflammatory infiltrate consisting of lymphocytes and plasma cells with lymphoepithelial lesion stage 1 aspects (71.42%). The control group (group B) presented plasma cell inflammatory infiltrate in one case (20%). None of the control cases had lymphoepithelial-like lesions within the salivary tissue.


CONCLUSIONS
Presence of intraepithelial T citotoxic cells (CD8+) is correlated with presence of ulceration of the alveolar crest covering mucosa in the edentulous patients. Lymphoepithelial-like lesions of the minor salivary tissue in edentulous patients suggest an autoimmune response in local mucosa.
Department of Pathology, Colentina University Hospital, Bucharest, Romania. sabina_zurac@yahoo.com
Sabina
S
Zurac
Mihaela
M
Girtan
Luciana
L
Lavric
G
G
Petsakos
Florica
F
Stăniceanu
Alexandra
A
Bastian
R
R
Andrei
Cristina
C
Popp
Elisabeta
E
Laba
D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000473:pathology*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D010950:Plasma Cells / Q000473:pathology; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000276:immunology*