Regulation of immune cells in oral lichen planus

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is an immunological disease and while it is understood that the T cell subsets, FoxP3 + Tregs and IL17 + Th17 cells are involved in immune regulation, little is known about their presence in OLP. The aims of this study were to compare the number of cells expressing FoxP3 or IL-17 in OLP with non-specifically inflamed oral mucosa and to determine which cell types expressed FoxP3 and/or IL-17 and their distribution. Immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the presence of FoxP3 + or IL-17 + cells in 12 control cases and 17 cases of OLP. These results were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Double-labelling immunofluorescence (IF) was used to determine the type of cell expressing FoxP3/IL-17 and these results were analysed qualitatively. OLP displayed significantly more FoxP3 + cells (mean 79.3 vs. 20.6 cells/defined area, p