Evaluation of salivary vimentin in oral erosive lichen planus, oral leukoplakia, oral squamous cell carcinoma and healthy subjects using ELISA.

CONTEXT: Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer globally. In India, 80% of oral cancers are preceded by oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs). The conditions with mild dysplasia go unrecognised and may eventually transform into severe dysplasia and ultimately to malignant lesions. Hence, the development of biomarkers that will serve as an adjunct to histological diagnosis has become essential. AIM: The present study undertaken to assess the salivary levels of vimentin, being non-invasive as early biomarker for malignant transformation of OPMDs. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional study, participants were selected from the Departments of Oral Medicine and Radiology and Oral Pathology and Microbiology of Azeezia College of Dental Sciences and Research, Kollam. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The salivary vimentin expression levels were detected using ELISA and were correlated with oral erosive lichen planus, oral leukoplakia, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients and healthy individuals. The association of salivary vimentin levels with clinical severity of oral erosive lichen planus, clinical types of leukoplakia, and clinical staging of OSCC. and also, the relationship between different grades of epithelial dysplasia in leukoplakia patients and histopathological grades of OSCC was assessed. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data were analysed using the statistical package SPSS 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistics were performed to estimate the mean, standard deviation, proportion of the respective groups. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Tukey's HSD post hoc test was used to compare the differences between the groups. Independent T-test was used for comparison of groups. RESULTS: The results showed that salivary vimentin can be used as a biomarker for predicting malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia and oral erosive lichen planus. The study showed a statistically significant correlation between oral erosive lichen planus, oral leukoplakia and oral cancer and control groups regarding salivary vimentin levels, also there is a statistically significant correlation of salivary vimentin with OSCC histopathological grades and OSCC Clinical Staging. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that salivary vimentin can be used as a biomarker for predicting malignant transformation of oral leukoplakia and oral erosive lichen planus.