الفهرس 
VITILIGO OVERVIEW
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Abstract
Vitiligo is a chronic acquired disorder of pigmentation,
characterized by destruction of epidermal melanocytes.
Prevalence is noticed as being between 0.5 to 1% of general
population. Onset of vitiligo occurs in childhood or young
adulthood with a peak age at 10–30 years. Both sexes have
shown equal predilection for the disease.
Vitiligo is multifactorial rather than being caused by
single etiology. Stress, genetic factors, mutations, infection,
accumulation of toxic metabolites, altered cellular environment,
autoimmunity, and defective melanocyte migration may all
interact and lead to the pathogenesis of vitiligo.
It has been reported that cytokines may play a role in
depigmentation owing to their alteration of autoimmunity. IL-
33 has an important role in different autoimmune diseases,
however scarce data are available about its role in vitiligo. In
the present study, we aimed to evaluate serum IL-33 levels in
active and stable vitiligo patients in comparison to healthy
controls in a case control study which was carried out on 75
subjects: 25 patients with active vitiligo, 25 with stable vitiligo
and 25 age and sex matched controls. All patients were selected
from the dermatology outpatient clinic of vitiligo, Ain-Shams
University Hospitals in the period from Septemper 2016 till
March 2017.All patients were subjected to full history taking, general
examination and dermatological examination. The disease
characteristics of vitiligo were recorded as regards activity,
duration and extent of vitiliginous lesions. The activity of the
disease was evaluated according to VIDA score which is a sixpoint
scale for evaluating vitiligo activity.
Five ml of whole blood was collected in plain tubes from
every participant in all groups. The sample was left for clotting
then centrifuged at 3000 rpm and the plasma separated within
<1 h from sample collection and then stored at –20°C. The
serum level of IL-33 was measured by ELISA.
We found a high significant difference between cases
and controls regarding IL-33 levels with higher IL-33 levels
among cases as compared to control. There was no statistical
significant difference regarding IL-33 levels according to sex or
age of patients, disease activity or type of vitiligo.
Our study detected increased serum IL-33 in vitiligo
patients versus controls, concluding that there is a possible
relationship between altered serum IL-33 levels and vitiligo. No
statistical significant difference was found regarding IL-33
levels according to sex, age of patients, BSA or type of vitiligo.
This suggest that IL-33 has an important role in vitiligo
pathogenesis regardless of the activity and different disease
characteristics. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the
first to compare serum level of IL-33 in active vitiligo patients
versus stable cases.Our findings support the role of IL-33 in autoimmune
hypothesis for melanocyte destruction in vitiligo and it might
be an important factor among different interacting pathogenic
mechanisms. However, IL-33 can’t be used as an activity
marker in differentiation between active and stable cases.