European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background: Leukoplakia is the most common potentially malignant disorder of the oral mucosa.  Latest developments in the field of molecular biology have greatly increased our knowledge of the role of various bio markers in carcinogenesis and prognosis of precancerous and cancerous lesions.
Aim: The present study aims to assess the expression of CD44 in saliva of subjects with leukoplakia by quantitative Real Time-polymerase chain reaction.
  
Methodology: 30 subjects with leukoplakia (clinically and histopathologically confirmed) and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. Quantitative real time PCR was run on the salivary samples of these study subjects. 
 
Results: An individual pattern of down regulation of CD44 was noted in 60% of the subjects with leukoplakia and upregulation was noted in 90% of controls by absolute quantification method. The gene fold expression ratio by relative quantification method between subjects with leukoplakia and controls delta ct method was found to be 5.777/5.827= 0.9914 and by double delta ct method was found to be 28.4151/28.0694=1.0123. No statistical significant difference was noted in the expression of CD44 and grades of epithelial dysplasia.
Conclusion:  Although an individual pattern of   down regulation of CD44 was noted in subjects with leukoplakia, the gene fold expression ratio between subjects with leukoplakia and controls by both the methods was approximately 1 suggesting no difference in the gene fold expression ratio between subjects with leukoplakia and controls. CD44 was not found to be a reliable marker in determining the malignant transformation of leukoplakia.