Increased serum level of p-selectin in patients with lichen planus

Lichen planus (LP) is a common, pruritic and inflammatory disease of the skin, hair follicles and mucous membranes. Immunologic mechanisms, especially cell-mediated immunity, play a major role in triggering the clinical expression of the disease. P-selectin is an adhesion molecule present within endothelial cells and mediates endothelial-leukocyte interactions. Therefore, it is considered that P-selectin plays an important role in LP. The aim of our study is to research the relation between P-selectin and LP. Serum P-selectin levels were determined with the enzyme- linked immunosorbent sandwich assay method in sera from 40 LP patients and 40 healthy controls. The serum levels of P-selectin were statistically significantly higher in the patients than in healthy controls (p < 0.05), in female patients (39.32 +/- 11.34 pg/ml) than in male patients (31.93 +/- 9.83 pg/ml) (p < 0.01), and in the patients with eruptive form (40.27 +/- 9.32 pg/ml) than in those with the localised (32.83 +/- 9.93 pg/ml) and hypertrophic (31.72 +/- 8.39 pg/ml) forms (both p < 0.01). In conclusion, we found a meaningful relation between LP and serum P-selectin levels.