Th17Relative Cytokines In Vitiligo

Objective: To study the relationship between Th17relativecytokines (IL-17, IL-6and TGF-β) and the incidence of vitiligo, wedetected the levels of these cytokines in sera of vitiligo patients andhealthy controls. We aim to provide new laboratory evidence forautoimmune theory of vitiligo and expect to provide new ideas for theclinical treatment.Methods: Patients were enrolled from November2013to July2014,who came to Bethune First Hospital of Jilin University dermatology.They were diagnosed to be progressive vitiligo by dermatologist,excluded of other mucocutaneous hypopigmentation or depigmentation ofdiseases and autoimmune diseases, severe medical illness and malignantskin tumors. Female patients were not in a state of pregnancy. All patientsdid not receive system treatment, drug treatment, immunosuppressivetherapy and physical therapy in nearly three-month. The normal controlgroup were matched to the vitiligo patients with age and sex. We didELISA analysis for the levels of Th17relative cytokines (IL-17, IL-6andTGF-β) in vitiligo patients and normal controls. All data was analyzedusing student t test, P <0.05was considered statistically significant.Results: The levels of IL-6in serum were less in progressive vitiligopatients compared with normal control group, but the difference was notstatistically significant (P＞0.05). The levels of IL-17A in serum weresignificantly increased, and the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05). The levels of TGF-β in serum were reduced in progressivevitiligo patients compared with normal control group, but the difference was not statistically significant (P＞0.05).Conclusions: The levels of IL-17A in serum were significantlyincreased compared with healthy controls, which indicated that IL-17Aplayed an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo and the Th17cellssecreting IL-17A were involved in the autoimmune response of vitiligo.The difference of IL-6and TGF-β between progressive vitiligo patientsand normal controls was not statistically significant. This indicate that thecytokine environment was nearly the same in progressive vitiligo patientsand normal controls to affect the differentiation of Th17cells. The highlevels of serum IL-17A in vitiligo patients may be derived from theincreasing number of Th17cells and/or enhanced function of Th17cells.