Methods: Tissue specimens were taken from 9 controls and 9 patients with OLP. RNA samples of 9 patients were divided into 3 groups at random to create three distinct RNA pools, and samples of controls were pooled together as normal control according to the principle that equimolar amounts of RNA were allocated from each sample. The pools of samples from patients and controls were hybridized to GeneChip arrays of the same type. Then, three pools of patients were compared with control to detect and quantify the changes in gene expression, respectively. The differentially expressed gene were further performed GO and Pathway analysis. 6 genes were selected at rantom for real-time RT-PCR confirmation.
Results: Total 985 differentially expressed genes, with 629 genes up-regulated and 356 genes down-regulated, were identified by excluding genes encoding hypothetical proteins and non-descript mRNAs. The differential genes in OLP lesions were mainly associated with membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm and extracellular region for Cell Component, binding, receptor activity, transferase activity and transcription factor activity for Molecular Function, signal transduction, regulation of transcription, cell adhesion and immune response for Biological Process. In addition, Pathway analysis for the differential genes had uncovered that large numbers of biochemical pathways were involved in the pathogenesis of OLP, such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, focal adhesion, Jak-STAT signaling pathway, et al. Most of the chosen genes showed similar expression changes in both gene chip and real-time PCR.
Conclusions: The study shows that Oral mucosal biopsies obtained from healthy and OLP subjects display distinct expression profiles. These differences provide a global view of physiopathologic processes active in lesions and may provide invaluable help to clarify the natural history of OLP.