Role of Oxidative Stress Markers and Antioxidants in Diagnosis of Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Background: Oral submucous fibrosis is a chronic disease affecting oral cavity. The pathological changes in this disease cause an increase in markers of oxidative stress and decrease in antioxidants. Measuring the levels of these markers in blood can help in diagnosis of disease. Objective: To determine the levels of lysyl oxidase, malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione in patients of oral submucous fibrosis.Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional comparative study conducted at Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Lahore. After the approval of ethical review board, a total of 100 subjects (50 control and 50 patients) were enrolled in the study. Informed written consent was taken from the participants of the study. The levels of lysyl oxidase were measured in the serum samples of patients and were compared with the healthy controls using ELIZA kit (Bio Vendor). Malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione were measured by spectrophotometric method.Results: Significantly increasing trends of lysyl oxidase (50.26±10.25pg/ml vs.41.26±5.29pg/ml), MDA (5.65±.065 nmol/ml vs. 1.2±0.956 nmol/ml) and low level of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione were observed in oral submucous fibrosis (0.125±.0956 U/gHb, 1.7±.0259 U/gHb and 1.36±.0325 ìmol/L respectively) in comparison with healthy subjects (0.65±.0156 U/gHb, 4.26±2.056 U/gHb and 10.25±3.29 ìmol/L respectively).Conclusion: Lysyl oxidase, malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione can be used as a diagnostic marker of oral submucous fibrosis. Keywords: Antioxidants, Iysyl oxidase, Malondialdehyde, Oral submucous fibrosis.