The Impact of Sex differences and Oxidative Stress on the Severity of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis in Iraqi patients

Recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAS) is an inflammatory condition of the oral mucosa characterized by painful, well-circumscribed, single or multiple round or ovoid ulcerations. These ulcerations' exact etiologic factor(s) are not yet understood. Aim To demonstrate the effect of sex and some oxidative stress markers (GSH, MDA) with RAS. 90 participants aged (18-35) years were recruited, divided into two groups: 60 patients (35 females,25 males) with RAS and 30(16 females,14 males) healthy controls. Samples were collected from specialized dental treatment centres in Ramadi and Fallujah, Iraq. The percentage of males and females was calculated by statically calculation while. The levels of glutathione (GSH) and Malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results show that RAS significantly more prevalent in females in percentage (58.30%) with (p-value=0.008) in patients than male were in percentage (41.70%) with (p-value=0.078). As well as highly significant increase in serum levels of glutathione (12.164±7.295) ng/ml in RAS patients compared to (6.938±3.888) ng/ml in control with (p=0.048*) and no significant difference in Malondialdehyde levels which was (37.147±29.556) nmol/ml inpatients and (33.373±20.531) nmol/ml in control group with (p=0.552ns). As well as, find highly effect of females compared to male in serum levels of GSH and MDA of patients which was (15.35±10.323) ng/ml at (p=0.04*), (44.03±31.146) nmol/ml at (p=0.03*) in female respectively. Measurements of the levels of some antioxidant such as GSH in serum suggested that these markers contributed to measure effect of oxidative stress on RAS pathogenesis and are potential markers for diagnosis and treatment. As well as, the levels of GSH and MDA highly effected by sex type.