Evaluation of antioxidant-oxidant status of saliva in recurrent aphthous stomatitis: A systematic review

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) as a common oral lesion may be created due to oxidative stress. In this study, we intend to examine the salivary antioxidant-oxidant status in patients with RAS.

In this review study, all English and Persian articles were searched by relevant keywords from the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane, Scopus and SID databases from 1995 to 30 March 2020. Two independent reviewers performed the study selection using the specified eligibility criteria. Finally, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) method was used for the quality evaluation of studies.

A systematic search on the references led to the identification of 87 articles, of which 68 were excluded and finally, 19 articles were included in the study. The majority of the studies (86%) showed no significant decrease in the total antioxidant capacity (TAC). In 71% of the studies, the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels exhibited an increasing trend and in all studies, Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) had a decreasing trend; the results in relation to uric acid were contradictory.

Beyond the need for more extensive research in this area, it can be concluded that since RAS has multifactorial etiology, changes in the body’s antioxidant-oxidant status are considered as an effective factor along with other factors.