Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Clinical and Laboratory Studies Dermatology 2008;217:235–240 DOI: 10.1159/000148250 Salivary Epidermal Growth Factor Levels in Behçet’s Disease and Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis Esra Adışen a Arzu Aral b Cemalettin Aybay b Mehmet Ali Gürer a Departments of a Dermatology and b Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey could be involved in the pathogenesis of BD and RAS by dis- turbing the mucosal integrity that may result in a susceptibil- ity to the development of oral ulcers in these diseases. Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) and Behçet’s dis- ease (BD) are common causes of oral ulcerations. RAS is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by painful, recurrent ulcerations of the oral mucosa that affects 20% of the general population [1–3]. The diagnosis is entirely based on history and clinical criteria [1, 4] and is classi- fied as minor, major and herpetiform on the basis of ulcer size and number [4]. BD is a multisystemic inflammatory disorder characterized by recurrent oral aphthae and at least 2 of the following findings: genital ulceration, pathergy positivity, eye involvement and skin lesions [5] . In RAS and BD there is repeated damage to epithelial and other tissues. The exact cause of both of the conditions remains unknown despite considerable research. Immu- nopathogenetic studies indicate that these ulcerations might be caused by cytotoxic action of lymphocytes and monocytes on the oral epithelium with an unknown trig- ger. Immunologic and/or cytokine aberration leading to Key Words Behçet’s disease  Oral ulceration  Etiology  Salivary epidermal growth factor Abstract Background: Epidermal growth factor (EGF) in saliva is cy- toprotective against injuries and contributes to the mainte- nance of the integrity of the gastrointestinal mucosa. Low salivary EGF levels have been observed in patients with var- ious forms of oral mucosal disease. Objective: Our aim was to determine whether salivary EGF is low in patients with re- current aphthous stomatitis (RAS) or those with Behçet’s dis- ease (BD) when compared with healthy controls. Methods: The study population consisted of 33 BD and 16 RAS patients and 60 healthy controls. Measurement of EGF concentration in human saliva was performed with an enzyme-linked im- munosorbent assay using an antibody-coated solid phase. Results: The mean salivary EGF levels ( 8SD) of active (with oral ulceration) and inactive stages (absence of oral ulcer- ation) of BD (1,939.7 8 1,561.5 and 2,305.7 8 1,481.6 pg/ml, respectively) and RAS patients (1,650.5 8 704.7 and 1,069.9 8 539.2 pg/ml, respectively) were both lower than those of the healthy controls (2,758.7 8 1,657.9 pg/ml) (p ! 0.05 for each). Conclusions: BD and RAS patients have reduced sali- vary EGF levels even in the absence of oral ulcerations. EGF Received: April 23, 2008 Accepted: May 27, 2008 Published online: July 25, 2008 Dr. Esra Adışen Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University TR–06500 Besevler-Ankara (Turkey) Tel. +90 312 202 61 29, Fax +90 312 212 90 18, E-Mail eozsoy@gazi.edu.tr © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel 1018–8665/08/2173–0235$24.50/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/drm Downloaded by: Gazi Üniversitesi 194.27.10.254 - 12/17/2014 2:51:39 PM