Investigation of vitamin D levels in patients with vitiligo vulgaris.

The aim of the study was to investigate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D3) levels in patients with vitiligo vulgaris in terms of causal relation and extension of the disorder. This study is a clinical cross-sectional study carried out in order to determine 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels among 25 patients with vitiligo vulgaris and in 41 controls. Fitzpatrick skin phototypes, history of autoimmune disease, family history of vitiligo, and duration of the disease were also evaluated. The mean levels of vitamin D in patient and the control group were 15.2±5.2 ng/dL and 14.4±6.2 ng/dL respectively (P>0.05). In our study, 48% of the patients had insufficient (<30 ng/mL) and 52% had very low (<15 ng/mL) levels of vitamin D. There was no correlation between age, duration of the disease, and body surface area affected with vitamin D levels. There was no significant difference in vitamin D levels between patients who had family history of vitiligo (5 patients, 20%) and those that did not. Vitamin D levels were found to be insufficient (<30 ng/mL) or very low (<15 ng/mL) in most of the patients with vitiligo vulgaris, but not statistically significantly different as a group when compared to the controls. More studies are needed to differentiate between the effects of low vitamin D levels on pathogenesis of vitiligo vulgaris and lower vitamin D levels as a result of the disease.

Evaluation of total antioxidant status, total oxidant status and oxidative stress index in patients with alopecia areata.

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to evaluate total oxidative stress and total antioxidant capacity in serum samples from patients with Alopesia Areata (AA) in our laboratory conditions. METHODS: In this study, 46 subjects with AA (26 females, 20 males) and the control subjects of 36 (20 females, 16 males) age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers from our hospital staffs were enrolled (the mean age was 23.7 ± 11.0 years). Blood samples were obtained following an overnight fasting state, and were collected on ice at 4°C. The serum samples were separated from the cells by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 15 min and were stored at -80°C and used for the analysis of the Total Antioxidant Status (TAS) and Total Oxidant Status (TOS). RESULTS: Total Antioxidant Status (TAS) and Total Oxidant Status (TOS), Oxidative Stress Index (OSI) (TOS/TAS) levels of AA patients were 1.4777 ± 0.1986; 9.7490 ± 6.0445; 0.6593 ± 0.4069 respectively. TAS; TOS; OSI (TOS/TAS) levels of controls were 1.4028 ± 0.1687; 9.4627 ± 4.2781; 0.6875 ± 0.3232 respectively. TAS, TOS and OSI levels showed no significant difference between the control and AA group (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Future studies about AA pathogenesis should be based not only on oxidant/antioxidant balance but also on several other factors. Because it was observed that the disease showed recurrence in different situations. Since the selection criteria of patients is affected from disease severity and environmental and genetical factors, multicentric studies with better sampled patient population and higher patient number is required.