Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of biscoclaurine alkaloids (BA; cepharanthin®) on clinical symptoms, and to examine superoxide anion (O2-) generation from peripheral blood neutrophils and plasma cytokine levels in patients with oral lichen planus (OLP) . We also followed up on the changes in these data over the course of the patients' clinical treatment.
Materials and Methods : The effects of BA on O2-generation from peripheral blood neutrophils were clinically investigated. BA (24 to 30 mg/day, for periods greater than 6 months) was clinically administered to 36 patients with OLP. In addition, O2-generation and cytokine levels were simultaneously measured in eight patients (BA: 24 mg/day) randomly selected from the study group. The relationship between the degree of improvement of clinical symptoms, the O2-generation levels, and plasma cytokine levels such as TNF- a and IL-1β according to clinical course was examined. Neutrophil O2-generation was measured in terms of cytochrome C reduction, and plasma cytokine was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at Nihon-Igaku-Rinshokensa-Kenkyusho (Izumo, Japan) . A paired t-test was used for statistical analysis.
Results : (1) The symptoms in OLP were improved by the administration of BA. (2) BA effectively reduced O2-generation. Both the post-treatment period level of O2-generation, and the degree of clinical symptoms in patients were significantly lower (p<0.02) compared to those of the pre-treatment period. (3) There were no significant differences between pre- and post 6 months' values in plasma TNF-α (p=0.12) and IL-1β levels (p=0.09) of the OLP patients.
Conclusion : These results suggest that the suppression of O2-generation from peripheral blood neutrophils may be closely related to the improvement of OLP symptoms.
Acknowledgement : This study was supported by a grant-in-aid (13672092) for scientific research from the ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
