Observational Molecular Case-Control Study of Genetic Polymorphisms 1 in Programmed Cell Death Protein-1 in Patients with Oral Lichen Planus

BACKGROUND: The association between programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) variations and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases has been recurrently reported. However, there is no report about its relationship with oral lichen planus (OLP) as one of autoimmune diseases. METHODS: We investigated the association between genetic predisposition to OLP and two single nucleotide polymorphisms in PD-1. RESULTS: GG, GA, and AA genotypes at position +7146 were found in 59 (80.8 %), 10 (13.7 %), and 4 (5.5 %) patients, and in 132 (77 %), 34 (20 %), and 5 (3 %) healthy participants. CC, CT, and TT genotypes at position +7785 were found in 32 (43.8 %), 35 (47.9 %), and 6 (8.2 %) patients and in 99 (58 %), 66 (39 %), and 6 (3 %) controls. Analysis indicated that patients’ genotypes were not statistically different from controls’ genotypes at both positions +7146 (P = 0.35 and P = 0.98) and +7785 (P = 0.07 and P = 0.06). CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that PD-1 SNPs at +7146 [PD-1.3] G/A and +7785 [PD-1.5] C/T was not associated with susceptibility to OLP. However, further research with higher sample size and in different geographical regions is needed in order to achieve the generalizability of the findings.