Evaluation of IFN-Gamma and HSP70 Level in the Saliva of Behcet’s Disease Patients With Active Oral Lesions

Introduction: Behcet’s disease (BD) is a multi-systemic inflammatory disorder. Evaluating the production of cytokines such as interferon gamma and biomarkers such as heat shock protein-70 (HSP70)is an important way to study the pathogenesis and development of BD. This study aimed to compare the salivary level of interferon gamma and HSP70 between patients infected with BD and healthy individual. Methods: This case-control study was performed on 35 patients with Behcet’s syndrome and 70 healthy individuals as the control group, who were selected from those referring to the Department of Oral Medicine of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The levels of interferon gamma and HSP70 were measured in the whole unstimulated saliva through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELIZA). In order to compare the quantitative variables between two groups, independent samples t-test or its nonparametric equivalent, Mann-Whitney U test, was used in SPSS software version 16.0. In this study, a P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was no significant difference between the study groups in terms of age and gender, as well as salivary interferon gamma and HSP70 levels. Interferon gamma level was 15.16±3.38 pg/mg in the case group and 5.27±1.21 pg/mg in the control group, and salivary HSP70 level was found to be 45.50±17 ng/mL and 19.5±5.2 ng/mL in the case and control groups, respectively. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that interferon gamma and HSP70 levels in patients with Behcet’s syndrome are high and can be evaluated as an important tool for the treatment and evaluation of disease development in future studies.