A retrospective study on immunohistochemical evaluation of CD34 in the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disorder with an autoimmune inflammatory pathogenesis. Although the etiology of OLP is not known, it is considered to be a T-cell-mediated inflammatory disorder. Angiogenesis is the neoformation of anomalous blood vessels in preexisting vascular structures. Chronic inflammatory disease has been related with stimulus of uncharacteristic angiogenesis.

The objective of this study was to analyze and appraise the role of angiogenesis in lichen planus by the expression of CD34 immunohistochemistry.

Group I, the control group, comprised 10 cases. Group II comprised 30 diagnosed cases of OLP. These 40 tissues were gauged for microvessel density (MVD) in four selected areas with high inflammatory infiltrate for the expression of CD34 antibody using immunohistochemistry.

Using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's multiple comparison test we observed a significant difference between the groups (P < 0.0001). Patients with erosive pattern (146.30 ± 16.59) show the highest CD34 MVD than the patients with reticular pattern (104.90 ± 10.61), followed by normal subjects (43.04 ± 8.70). Hence, it can be concluded that angiogenesis is related to the pathogenesis and progression of OLP.