Investigation Of Neuropeptide Y In Blood Plasma And CD63on The Basophils’surface In Peripheral Blood Of Patients With Urticaria Factitia

Objective: To explore the significance of Neuropeptide Y and basophilson pathogenesis of urticaria factitia, radioimmunoassay and flow cytometrywere applied to investigate the level of Neuropeptide Y in blood plasma andCD63on the basophils’ surface in peripheral blood of24patients withurticaria factitia and16healthy subjects in this research.Urticaria factitia, also known as dermographic urticarial, is characterizedfollowing a minor stroking pressure, scratching or rubbing of the skin. Itbrings whealing and temporary itching for some people. The exact causes ofthis disease are still unclear. Most of scholars propose it is related to fungusand its metabolic products, pregnancy and systemic disease, such as thyroiddysfunction, diabetes, sarcoptic mite, etc. Some studies also found out thatpsychological factors were important in the development of urticaria factitia.As a common dermatosis, urticaria factitia has the characteristics that thecourse of it being long and recurrent attack happening easily, and thus has badeffects on patients’ quality of life. There has been a trifle of reports on thepathogenesis of urticaria factitia in recent years. Some patients who wereexposed to the allergens (dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and dermatophago-ides farinae) can get urticaria factitia, which indicates that allergic factors mayplay some roles in the development of urticaria factitia as well. At the sametime, some studies have shown that psychosis and psychological factors havea relationship with urticaria factitia. In allergic disease, many substances suchas allergen, histamine, leukotriene and prostaglandins would stimulate thenerve endings around to release neuropeptides[1], and neuropeptide Y (NPY)is one of the most abundant neuropeptides over the body. Neuropeptide Y wasfound to participate in the mechanisms of some common mental diseases in recent years. Some studies have shown that psychological factors such asdepression, tension, anxiety, negative events in life, time urgency, competition,major changes in routine work and the pressure of study have a certainrelationship with urticaria factitia[2-4]. Basophils is one of the main effectorcells in allergic reactions and activated basophils degranulates and releases theactive substances such as heparin, histamine, etc. CD63plays an importantrole in vesicle membrane on the surface of the particles. After the activatedbasophils degranulate, CD63molecules will be transferred to their membranesurface. Therefore, CD63is regarded as the best marker of activated basophils[5-6].Under the direction of the network theory of nerve-immune-endocrine,the study proposes to explore the significance of neuropeptide Y and basophilson pathogenesis of urticaria factitia.Methods: Twenty-four patients with urticaria factitia were involved inthe study. They were recruited from the Dermatology Outpatient Clinics in thesecond hospital of Hebei Medical University from August to December,2011.The course of urticaria factitia varied from5days to8years. The patientgroup’s inclusion criteria are:①To be in line with the diagnostic code ofurticaria factitia in Dermatology and Venereology edited by Wu Zhi-hua. Allpatients were characterized by whealing and itching following a minorstroking pressure, rubbing or scratching of the skin②Have not usedglucocorticoid or other drugs that affect the immune function of the bodywithin1month and antihistamine drugs within1week before the test③Non-accompanied with allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer orother serious systemic diseases,all subjects were not in gestational period andlactation. The control group involved16healthy persons. Radio immunoassay(RIA) was applied to detect the level of NPY in blood plasma from24patientsand16healthy subjects with125I neuropeptide Y radioimmunoassay Kit. At thesame time flow cytometry was applied to detect CD63on the basophils’surface in human peripheral blood with CD45-PERCP/CD203c-PE/CD63-FITC antibody combination. Each step was carried out strictly following the instructions of test kits. The results were analyzed by statistical methods withSPSS13.0software. The data were firstly analyzed by test its normality. Thedata that have followed Gaussian distribution were demonstrated inmean±Standard deviation and analyzed by two independent sample T test. Thedata which haven’t followed Gaussian distribution were expressed in medianor quartile and analyzed by Mann-Whitney test of rank-sum test.Results:1The results of NPY: The data followed Gaussian distribution throughthe test of normality (P=0.2>0.1). The results of case group and controlgroup were111.155±36.832(pg/ml) and103.456±44.697(pg/ml)respectively,which were expressed in mean±Standard deviation. Statisticalresults of NPY in blood plasma of patients showed no statistical significancecompared with the normal controls by using two independent sample Ttest(P=0.556＞0.05).2The results of CD63: The data didn’t follow Gaussian distributionthrough the test of normality (P=0.003＜0.1). The results of case group andcontrol group were280.5/176.7and18.1/33.5respectively,which weredemonstrated in median or quartile. Statistical results of CD63in blood ofpatients showed statistical significance compared with the normal controls byusing Mann-Whitney test of rank-sum test (P=0.000＜0.05).Conclusisons:The results of NPY in blood plasma of urticaria factitia patients showedno statistical significance compared with the normal controls. This indicatesthat neuropeptide Y may have no association with urticaria factitia and furtherresearch is needed. The results of CD63on the basophils’ surface in peripheralblood of patient with urticaria factitia showed statistical significance comparedwith the normal controls. This demonstrates that the basophils in peripheralblood of patient with urticaria factitia are in the active state and basophils mayhave association with urticaria factitia.