Salivary VEGF-R3, TNF-α, TGF-β and IL-17A/F Levels in Patients with Minor Aphthous

Background: Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common mucosal ulcerative of oral cavity. The role of immune system, especially cytokines in immunopathogenesis of aphthous stomatitis is not highly considered. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of salivary cytokines, including VEGF-R3, TGF-β1, and TNF-α and IL-17A/F in patients with RAS in two clinical stages, ulcerative and healing period. Materials and Methods: In this case –control study, 18 patients with RAS (case group) and 18 healthy individuals (control groups) who were matched for age and sex, were selected. In both ulcerative and healing stages, unstimulated saliva of patients with RAS and healthy controls were collected. Levels of salivary cytokines, including VEGF-R3, TGF-β, TNF-α, and IL-17A/F at each stage was determined by ELISA procedure and results were compared with the control group. Results: The levels of salivary VEGF-R3 in the ulcerative (5.92 1.87ng/ml) and healing (7.14 ±3.1 ng/ml) stages significantly decreased compared with those of the control group (9.71±2.24 ng/ml). Moreover, the level of salivary TGF-β1 in ulcerative (142.21±18.7 pg/ml) and healing (167.02±28.1 pg/ml) stages significantly reduced compared with control group (178.35±55.67 pg/ml). In addition, the case group showed significant increase in both inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α and IL-17 A/F. The level of salivary TNF-α in ulcerative (34.9±11.35pg/ml) and healing (28.09±9.07pg/ml) stages demonstrated significant increase when compared with control group (10.76±1.83 pg/ml). Also, the IL-17 A/F level in the ulcerative (96.44±25.74 pg/ml) and healing (79.17±24.96 pg/ml) stages significantly increased compared with the control group (53.47±13 pg/ml). Conclusion: Our findings showed that the reduction of VEGF-R3 and TGF-β1 cytokines and increase inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-17 A/F are effective in the pathogenesis of minor aphthous particularly in ulcerative stage.