Study On The Immunology And IL-17in Patients With Vitiligo

ObjectiveVitiligo is a common dermatological disorder characterized by milky-white depigmented macules devoid of melanines. The exact mechanisms of the illness remains unknown, but several hypotheses about its pathogenesis are advanced. Possible mechanisms that have been prosposed mainly include the autoimmune, melanocyte self-destruction hypotheses, neural and genetic. Now, more and more researchers believe that autoimmunity has played an important role in the mechanism of vitiligo. The autoimmune disorders mediated black grain destruction of melanocyte and the development of the vitiligo. In recent years, IL-17was a new discovered cytokine. It’s released by Th17cell. Its main biological effect is to regulate the release of cytokines and to promote the inflammatory reaction. It plays important role in autoimmune disease and infectious disease, so it becomes a hot study recently. This study is to summarize the clinical characteristics of vitiligo and to detect the blood plasma levels of immunoglobulins, complements, T-lymphocyte subsets and IL-17. Therefore investigating the corelationship between them and further to illustrating the important significance of autoimmune for the development and clinical performance of vitiligo, in order to guide the treatment. Patients and methodsQuestionnaire were designed and completed regarding clinical characteristics. To analyze the data of32vitiligo cases from2011.08to2012.03in our hospital.32vitiligo patients were classified into two groups:progressive stage group(16cases) and stationary stage group(16cases).Of the patients,19were men and13were women, aged from16to42. The mean age of onset was28.28±10.40years.30normal individuals served as controls.(18were men and12were women, aged from18to41. The mean age of onset was29.19±10.97years.) All the patients were not take treatment in recent1month and have no complication. Peripheral blood was drawn for the following experiment.1. The proportion of CD3+, CD8+, CD4+T cells and Th/Ts in peripheral blood of vitiligo patients and control were analyzed by flow cytometry.2. The level of IgG, IgA, IgM and C3, C4were detected in peripheral blood of vitiligo patients and control by immunofluorescence technique.3. The level of IL-17was detected in peripheral blood of vitiligo patients and control by enzyme-linked immunoadsordent assay.Statistics process:All the analysis were performed by the SPSS17.0software package and all the data are expressed with X±S.The comparisons between every groups were carried by variance analysis and pearson correlation analysis. The inspection level is a=0.05.Results1cellular immunity and humoral immunity1.1cellular immunityThe proportion of CD4+T cells and Th/Ts in stationary stage group and progressive stage group were significantly lower than that of the control group (P<0.05).The proportion of CD3+T cells and CD8+T cells in stationary stage and progressive stage vitiligo patients were not significantly different from those in controls (P>0.05).The proportion of CD3+, CD4+and Th/Ts in scatter type group were lower than that in control(P<0.05); The other results in vitiligo patients were not significantly different from those of control (P>0.05).1.2humoral immunityThe level of IgM and C3in stationary stage group and progressive stage group were significantly lower than that of the control group (P<0.05).The level of IgG in stationary stage vitiligo patients was higher than that of control (P<0.05).There were not statistically significantly differences in levels of other results between vitiligo and controls(P>0.05).The level of IgA and C3in scatter type group, the level of IgG and C3in topical type group were significantly lower than that of the control group(P<0.05).The other results in vitiligo patients were not significantly different from those of control (P>0.05).2the level of IL-17The level of IL-17in progressive stage group and stationary stage group was higher than that in control(P<0.05). The level of IL-17in progressive stage group was higher than that in stationary stage group. The level of IL-17was not correlated with the course of the disease and positively correlated with area of skin lesions.There was negative correlation between the proportion of CD4+T cells and the level of IL-17in peripheral blood of the patients with vitiligo.Conclusion1. In vitiligo patients, the level of CD4+T cells, Th/Ts, IgM and C3were lower than that in control(P<0.05). These observations suggest that abnormal regulation of autoimmune may participate in the development and progress of vitiligo.2. The level of IL-17was significantly higher than those of healthy contr-ols. The level of IL-17was not correlated with the course of the disease and positively correlated with area of skin lesions. It imply that IL-17may plays a role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.3. There was negative correlation between the proportion of CD4+T cells and the level of IL-17in peripheral blood of the patients with vitiligo. So there are may other reasons for this result. We need more experiments to find them out.