Oral cancer may arise de-novo or may be preceded by Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders
(OPMDs). Chemerin is multifunctional adipokine with important role in regulating angiogenesis,
cell proliferation and inflammation. Chemerin expression could be helpful for evaluating the
progressive risk of OPMDs like OSMF and also help in evaluating prognosis of OSCC. In the
present study total 80 subjects were assessed for serum chemerin levels. Among these 20 were
healthy controls and 20 cases each of OSMF, OSMF associated OSCC and OSCC. The values
of serum chemerin were compared between controls and cases and also amongst the clinical
stages of the study groups. our study demonstrated a progressively statistically significant
increase in mean serum chemerin levels in OSMF cases, OSMF associated OSCC cases and
OSCC cases than the controls. Thus serum chemerin level can be used as an adjunctive serum
biomarker for predicting the malignant potential of OSMF and diagnosis of OSMF associated
OSCC and OSCC.