The measurement of serum TNF-α levels in patients with lichen planus

Background: Lichen planus is a common mucocutaneous inflammatory skin disease with a multifactorial etiology. Cytokines playa key role in lichen planus pathogenesis. This study investigates the relationship between disease severity and levels of tumornecrosis factor-? (TNF-?), which is considered a primary cytokine that initiates cytotoxicity.Material and methods: Serum TNF-? levels were compared between a patient group (n = 34) and a control group (n = 20). TNF-?serum levels were measured using human TNF-? Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test kits, and the two groups werestatistically compared to each other.Results: Mean serum TNF-? levels were found to be significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (p 0.005). No relationshipwas detected between TNF-? levels and patients’ sex.Conclusion: It is thought that TNF-?, a proinflammatory cytokine, may play an important role in the pathogenesis of lichen planus.TNF-? may be a simple and effective predictor to illustrate the inflammatory status in patients with lichen planus