Expression of secreted frizzled-related protein-1 in patient with oral submucous fibrosis

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the concentrations and clinical significance of secreted frizzled-related protein-1(SFRP1) insaliva and gingival crevicular fluid of patients with oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) as well as the expression of SFRP1 in patients' OSF buccal mucosa. Methods: Twenty OSF patients aged 20 to 40 years old were recruited and randomly divided into two experimental groups, of which were triamcinolone acetonide group and combined triamcinolone acetonide and salvia miltiorrhiza group, respectively. Ten healthy volunteers matchable in sex and age with the patients were recruited as control group. Concentrations of SFRP1 in saliva and gingival crevicular fluid were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay before and after a continuous treatment of 4 weeks. The visual analogue scale(VAS) pain scores and opening size were also recorded. The expression of SFRP1 in samples from OSF patients' buccal mucosa was also detected using immunohistochemical method. SPSS 16.0 was applied to analyze the results of the experiments. Results: The concentrations of SFRP1 in saliva and gingival crevicular fluid before treatment were (105.8±27.6) ng/L and (84.7±33.2) ng/L in triamcinolone acetonide group, and (86.6±23.2) ng/L and (97.0±23.2) ng/L in combining group, which were both significantly lower(P<0.01) than that in normal group([153.0±32.8] ng/L and [157.5±31.1] ng/L), respectively. The positive expression rate of SFRP1 in OSF group(10%[2/20]) was significantly lower than that of the control group(10/10)(P<0.01). After the treatment for 4 weeks, the concentrations of SFRP1 increased to (141.2±35.3) ng/L and (130.6±31.3) ng/L in triamcinolone acetonide group, and to (148.5±65.9) ng/L and (123.0±27.4) ng/L in combining group, which were both significantly higher than those of pre-treatment, respectively(P<0.01). Conclusions: The concentrations of SFRP1 in saliva and gingival crevicular fluid of OSF patients, which positively corelated to the expression of SFRP1 in OSF patients' buccal mucosa, were significantly lower than that of normal individuals and increased significantly after treatments of local injections of triamcinolone acetonide only or combined with salvia miltiorrhiza.