Serum lipid profile paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a common chronic and recurrent inflammatory skin disease with unknown etiology that has been associated with abnormal plasma lipid metabolism and oxidative stress. There are controversial results in the previous studies investigating oxidant/antioxidant systems in psoriasis.The aim of this work was to evaluate dyslipidemia, oxidative stress, total antioxidant capacity and serum paraoxonase (PON1) and arylesterase (ARE) activities in psoriasis, and to look for a correlation between these parameters and lesion percentage in psoriasis.Thirty psoriatic patients and twenty three sex- and agematched healthy volunteers were included in the study. From blood samples, lipid profile, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, total antioxidant capacity (TAO), serum PON1 and ARE activities were determined.No significant differences between the patients and controls were found in terms of total cholesterol, triacylglycerol (TAG), HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol, MDA and TAO levels. Serum PON1 and sodium-stimulated PON1 activities (p < 0.05) and ARE activity (p < 0.01) were found significantly higher in the patients than in the controls. There was not any significant correlation between lesion percentage and the parameters studied.

Sister chromatid exchange and micronucleus studies in patients with Behçet's disease.

BACKGROUND: Genetic factors that predispose individuals to Behçet's disease (BD) are considered to play important roles in the development of the disease. The aim of this study was to determine, by counting sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and micronucleus (MN) frequencies, whether DNA damage have an effect on the pathogenesis of BD. Furthermore, our aim was to show if there is an association between oxidative stress and chromosome instability in BD. METHODS: We analyzed lymphocytes from patients with BD (16 in active and 14 in inactive periods) and 20 healthy controls for SCE and MN frequencies. In addition, malondialdehyde (MDA) level, superoxide dismutase (SOD) level, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) count were determined in the all subjects. RESULTS: The SCE and MN frequencies were significantly higher in both the active and inactive period patients than in the controls (p < 0.00001, p < 0.0001, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively), and the MDA level was significantly higher in both the active and inactive period patients than in the controls (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). In contrast, the SOD and GSH-Px levels were significantly lower in both the active and inactive period patients than in the controls (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increased plasma MDA level and decreased plasma GSH-Px and SOD levels reflect the increased levels of oxidative stress in BD patients, and this situation may impair genetic stability in BD patients.

The relationship between serum prolactin levels and disease activity in patients with Behcet's disease.

The aim of this study was to determine the serum levels of prolactin in patients with Behcet's disease and to evaluate its correlation with disease activity. Serum prolactin levels were measured by a chemiluminescence method in 32 patients with Behcet's disease and compared with 20 age-and sex-matched healthy controls. The patients with Behcet's disease were subdivided into two groups according to disease activity: active (18 patients; 13 men and five women, average age 34.0 +/- 6.5 (28-48) years), and inactive (14 patients; 10 men and four women, average age 32.7 +/- 3.1 (22-49 years). Patients with active Behcet's disease had higher serum prolactin levels than the inactive and control groups. Prolactin levels in patients with active Behcet's disease differed significantly from the healthy control subjects (p < 0.05) only, but not the inactive group. Four patients out of 32 (12.5%) Behcet's disease patients showed mild hyperprolactinemia. All four of these cases were from the active Behcet's disease group. Prolactin levels were correlated with ESR (p < 0.05) and CRP (p < 0.05) levels in the active BD group, but not in the inactive BD and control groups. Our results suggest a possible role for this immunoregulatory hormone in the disease expression and pathogenesis of Behcet's disease.

Cell-mediated immune hypersensitivity is stronger on noninvolved side than involved side in patients with herpes zoster.

The difference between involved and noninvolved sides of the body in cell-mediated immunity was investigated in this work; tuberculin reactions in two forearms were assessed in men and women with herpes zoster. The tuberculin reaction was smaller on the involved side than in the noninvolved side of the body in total sample, men and women. The results suggested that the lower activity of cell-mediated immune system in one side of the body may be related to the unilateral involvement of the zona-zoster infection.