. 2022 Oct 30;18(2):883–888. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2022.10.013

Table 2.

Characteristics of included studies on peripheral blood cytokines in the treatment of patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis.

Author, year	Country /Region	Study design	Case (n)	Treatment	Sample	Detection method	Cytokine detected	Cytokine with significant difference after treatment
Elamrousy et al., 2021¹⁸	Egypt	Randomized controlled	20	Topical camel whey protein	Serum	Flow cytometry	IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α	IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α
Han et al., 2021⁴	China	Comparative study	80	Not reported	Plasma	ELISA	IL-1β, IL-2, TNF-α	IL-1β, IL-2, TNF-α
Lu et al., 2020⁵	China	Comparative study	60	Systemic thalidomide	Plasma	ELISA	IL-6, IL-18	IL-6, IL-18
Mimura et al., 2017⁶	Brazil	Randomized controlled	22	Systemic symbiotic	Serum	MAP Human Cytokine/Chemokine Magnetic Bead	IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-17A, TNF-α	IL-4, TNF-α
Gupta et al., 2014⁹	India	Comparative study	30	Systemic levamisole	Serum	ELISA	IL-8	IL-8
Sun et al., 2006¹³	China, Taiwan	Comparative study	55	Systemic levamisole	Serum	ELISA	TNF-α	TNF-α
Sun et al., 2005¹⁹	China, Taiwan	Comparative study	19	Systemic Tien-Hsien liquid	Serum	ELISA	IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ	IL-2, IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ
Sun et al., 2004¹⁶	China, Taiwan	Comparative study	82	Systemic levamisole	Serum	Immulite assay	IL-6, IL-8	IL-6, IL-8
Sun et al., 2003³	China, Taiwan	Comparative study	45	Systemic levamisole and Chinese medicinal herbs	Serum	Immulite assay	IL-6	IL-6

Abbreviations: ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; TGF, transforming growth factor; TNF, tumor necrosis factor.