Abstract
Vitiligo is an acquired, specific, common, often heritable, depigmenting skin disorder characterized by progressive, well-circumscribed milky cutaneous macules devoid of identifiable melanocytes. It is multifactorial and polygenic. The precise pathology remains elusive; however, several theories have been proposed to explain the loss of epidermal melanocytes in this disorder. None of these theories can completely explain all the clinical and experimental observations made in this disorder. The present study was aimed to find out the role of humoral immunity in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. The serum immunoglobulin profiles of vitiligo patients were compared with that of normal healthy controls. Two hundred vitiligo patients and 75 controls were recruited randomly from the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Sir Sunderlal Hospital, and Banaras Hindu University Hospital, Varanasi, UP, India, for this study. Complements C3 and C4 and immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, and IgM were estimated by turbidometric method using immunoglobulin kit.
Serum C3 levels in 76% controls and 60.5% vitiligo patients were between 80 and 160 mg/dl, and 39.5% vitiligo patients had below 160 mg/dl and significantly decreased in vitiligo patients (86.99 ± 24.97 mg/dl) as compared to controls (95.09 ± 23.96 mg/dl). Serum C4 level is also decreased in vitiligo patients as compared to controls, but the decrease is nonsignificant. Significant increase in serum IgM was noted in vitiligo patients (148.36 ± 54.05 mg/dl) as compared to controls (125.06 ± 42.48 mg/dl). On the contrary, serum IgG and IgA were significantly decreased in vitiligo patients (1399.63 ± 241.33 and 183.80 ± 60.80 mg/dl) as compared to controls (1,460 ± 89.93 and 212.46 ± 67.33 mg/dl), respectively. These findings tend to suggest that aberrations in cell-mediated immunity and humoral immunity may be operative in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Whether the change in immunoglobulin concentrations is a cause or an effect needs further research in large-scale prospective studies.
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Singh, U., Singh, S., Pandey, S.S. (2012). Study of Serum Immunoglobulin Levels: Complements C3 and C4 in Vitiligo Patients in Northern India. In: Sabu, A., Augustine, A. (eds) Prospects in Bioscience: Addressing the Issues. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0810-5_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0810-5_13
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