Lactate dehydrogenase: An enzymatic biomarker in oral health and disease

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a metabolic enzyme catalyzing the anerobic glycolysis has been a non-specific indicator of diseases such as myocardial infarction, liver disease (being particularly high in toxic hepatitis with jaundice), megaloblastic anemia’s, and renal disease. LDH is an intracellular enzyme detectable in the cellular cytoplasm of all the cells in the human body, which becomes extracellular upon the cell death. Therefore, its extracellular presence is related to the cell death and tissue destruction. The LDH concentration in saliva, as an expression of cellular necrosis, could be a more specific indicator of the oral lesions that affect the integrity of the oral mucosa. This article thus reviews LDH as an enzyme marker of oral health and disease with a note on its isolation and storag