Oral submucous fibrosis patients have altered levels of cytokine production.

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a pre-malignant fibrotic lesion of the mouth in betel quid chewers and is characterised by dense bands of collagen in the juxta-epithelial region preceded by inflammation. We have investigated the spontaneous and stimulated production of cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from OSF patients and compared them with genetically-related relatives, Indian and Caucasian control subjects. The cytokines studied included: interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). The results show: a) significant differences in the stimulated versus non-stimulated levels of IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha but not of IFN-gamma production by patients, and in the relatives' stimulated versus non-stimulated levels of IL-1beta, IL-6 and IFN-gamma; b) no difference in the spontaneous cytokine production between any two groups; and c) significant increases in the patients' stimulated cytokines compared to the Caucasian and Indian controls (P< or =0.050). These results demonstrate increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines and reduced anti-fibrotic IFN-gamma in patients with OSF, which may be central to the pathogenesis of OSF.