Introduction: Chronic graft-vs-host disease (cGVHD) is a major cause of morbidity in long-term survivors of allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation. Herpesviruses are involved in the occurrence and progression of various oral diseases.
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV6) in patients with oral manifestations of cGVHD.
Materials and methods: Peripheral blood and oral fluids (whole saliva, gingival crevicular fluid and parotid gland saliva) from 19 cGVHD patients, and 28 blood donors were examined for HHV6. Oral tissue samples were collected from 12 cGVHD patients and 12 healthy individuals. Nested polymerase chain reaction was employed to identify the HHV6.
Results and conclusion: The virus was detected in whole saliva in 13 cGVHD patients (68%) and in 19 blood donors (67%). HHV6 was not identified in any of the gingival crevicular fluid and parotid gland saliva samples in cGVHD patients. In the control group 14.3% of both, four gingival crevicular fluid and four parotid gland saliva samples were positive. Two oral tissue samples of cGVHD patients were positive for HHV6. These results indicate that patients with oral manifestations of cGVHD and healthy individuals present high and similar incidence of HHV6 in blood and oral fluids. These data do not support the importance of HHV6 in oral lesions of cGVHD.