type and portions of peripheral blood t lymphocytes in oral lichen planus

background lichen planus is a disease with unknown etiology that affects the skin and the mucous membranes. immune dysregulation in the pathogenesis of oral lichen planus (olp) is well-known phenomenon. objectives in this study, we compared the levels of the peripheral blood t lymphocytes between patients with olp and control group. patients and methods in this study, 32 and 16 patients respectively with and without olp were recruited. five milliliters of the participants' peripheral venous blood was drew in an edta-containing test tube and the levels of cd3+, cd4+, and cd8+ cells, cd4+/cd8+ and cd4+/cd3+ ratio were measured by means of two-color flow cytometry. the data were analyzed in spps v.19 by employing mann-whitney u test. results there were no significant difference among the levels of cd3+, cd4+, and cd8+ lymphocytes and the ratio of cd4+/cd8+ and cd4+/cd3+ lymphocytes between patients and control group; however, there was a significant difference between male and female patients with respect to the levels of cd3+ and cd4+ lymphocytes and the ratio of cd4+/cd8+ and cd4+/cd3+ lymphocytes. conclusions our results confirm that only local immune mechanism known as skin-associated lymphoid tissue, not a systemic immunologic disorder, was involved in the olp.