Correlation Between Salivary Interleukin-6 and White Blood Cells in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration: A Clinical and Immunological Assessment

Abstract

Recurrent aphthous ulceration is the predominant oral condition, impacting 5–20% of the general populace, IL-6 is a crucial mediator in signaling acute inflammatory responses generated at infection sites and functioning as a warning signal to the entire organism. This study aims to quantify salivary IL-6 levels in patients with recurrent aphthous ulcers to evaluate the potential local synthesis of cytokines at the disease site. The study involved 80 individuals, including 40 patients identified with RAU and 40 sex and age matched healthy individuals as controls. Interleukin-6 levels were estimated by using commercially available micro-well enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits, white blood cells were determined by using an automated hematological analyzers XT2000i (from sysmex, Japan). The statistical analysis revealed a significant increase in IL-6 and white blood cells level increased significantly in patients with aphthous ulcers when compared with healthy individual (p-value <0.000) as well as the mean IL-6 level was significantly higher in major aphthous ulcers compared to minor aphthous ulcers (p-value = 0.005) and herpetiform aphthous ulcers (p-value = 0.008). Nonetheless, statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between minor aphthous ulcers and herpetiform aphthous ulcers.