Etiopathogenesis of Oral Lichen Planus and Epstein-Barr Virus in North Karnataka , India

Oral Lichen planus (OLP) is a disease of adulthood, and children are rarely affected. It may involve various mucosal surfaces either independently or concurrently (oral, skin, and oral and skin lesions). Prevalence of skin LP in general population is 0.9% -1.2% and prevalence of oral LP is reported between 0.1% and 2.2% (1). The relative risk for oral lichen planus was highest (13.7) among those who smoked and chewed tobacco . The etiopathogenesis appears to be complex, with interactions between genetic, environmental, lifestyle factors, and interestingly with new associations such as with liver disease have emerged. Viral infections have recently been linked with OLP. Herpes Simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Human Herpes virus-6 (HHV-6), EpsteinBarr virus (EBV), Human Papilloma virus (HPV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) are virus types that have been studied in the etiopathogenesis of OLP(2). EBV is associated with infectious mononucleosis, oral hairy leukoplakia (nonmalignant disorders), Burkitt lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) (malignant disorders). The purpose of this study is to screen Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) genotypes and to detect its role in the pathogenesis of Oral Lichen Planus (OLP) using tissue samples. Samples consisted of 80 cases of OLP and 30 age and sex matched controls. The genomic DNA isolated from the tissue samples were electrophoresed on a 0.8% agarose gel. The PCR based detection of EBV sequences in the clinical samples did not produce any amplification using primers F-EBV (TC-70) and R-EBV (TC-72). This investigation showed no EBV positivity in OLP and control subjects but this result cannot reject the role of EBV in oral lesions such as OLP, therefore, further studies need to be done for arriving at definitive conclusions.