The association between clinical activity and inflammatory response in odontogenic keratocysts. A retrospective study

Background and aim. Secondary Inflammation in odontogenic keratocyst induces odontogenic epithelial lining to lose its characteristic features by initiating the proliferation of epithelial cells. This can have an indirect impact on clinical aggressiveness. The aim of the present study is to retrospectively evaluate the association of inflammatory cell infiltrate and the clinical aggressiveness of odontogenic keratocyst. Materials and methods. n=45 cases of OKC were analysed histopathologically for its type and for the amount and distribution of inflammatory cell infiltrate. The data were tabulated and exported to IBM SPSS statistics software. Pearson Chi-square test was done to analyse the association between the inflammation and clinical aggressiveness. Result. 71.1% of the OKC cases turned out to show chronic inflammatory cell infiltrate. 88.8% of the cases with hyperplastic epithelial lining showed moderate to severe inflammatory cell infiltrate (p=0.05). A statistical significance (p=0.019) was obtained between the type of inflammatory cell infiltrate and the clinical aggressiveness. The OKCs with clinical aggressiveness showed a chronic to mixed inflammatory cell infiltration. A statistical significance was also obtained (p=0.023) between the amount of inflammatory cell infiltrate and the clinical aggressiveness. Conclusion. In the present study, the clinical aggressiveness of the OKCs were significantly associated with the type and amount of inflammatory cell infiltrate. However, more elaborate studies with advanced immunohistochemical markers, molecular techniques and increased sample size, are required to firmly establish the association.