الفهرس 
VitiligoOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Vitiligo is a specific type of idiopathic acquired or inherited leukoderma, which is characterized by patterned/circumscribed hypomelanosis of the skin & hair, microscopically by complete absence of melanocytes & medically by an increased risk of certain diseases, such as thyroid disease and alopecia areata.
The pathogenesis of vitiligo is contributed to many hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the destruction of melanocytes. But, three principle theories have been presented in this subject, they are the neurogenic, the self-destruct theory & the most approved hypothesis is the autoimmune theory.
The role of cellular immunity in vitiligo is supported by the studies on peripheral blood mononuclear cells using monoclonal antibodies with flow cytometry or fluorescence microscopy and complement-mediated cytotoxicity assays in large patient groups have initially reported high frequencies of skin-homing melanocyte-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cell profiles in the peripheral blood of patients with autoimmune vitiligo, strongly suggesting their involvement in the destruction of melanocytes.
In vivo, immunohistochemical studies of perilesional area of active lesions in generalized vitiligo mainly detects predominant CD8+ and to a lesser extent CD4+ T cells in the infiltrate, which express activation molecules such as the skin homing receptor; CLA antigen and the IL-2Rα (CD25).
IL-2 is a lymphokine synthesized and secreted primarily by T helper lympocytes and it stimulates the production of IL-2R on the T cell surfaces. IL-2R is then released to the serum as a measurable protein; sIL-2R. The amount of sIL-2R is proportionally related with the amount of IL-2R expressed on the T cell surface. Therefore serum levels of sIL-2R for in vivo immune activation, and elevated levels have been correlated with T-cell mediate immune disease.
In this study we estimated the serum level of sIL-2R in vitiligo patients in order to detect a possible relationship between its level and the clinical types of vitiligo.
Thirty vitiligo patients (14 males and 16 females) divided into 3 groups according to the clinical type into segmental (5 patients), focal (9 patients) and generalized (16 patients). Twenty apparently healthy subjects were included as controls. At presentation, all patients were subjected to full history, Full general and dermatological examination and measurement of sIL-2R using the commercially available ELISA kit.
The serum level of sIL-2R was significantly elevated in vitiligo patients compared to healthy controls. It was significantly elevated in the generalized and focal types in comparison to the controls while no significant difference was found between the segmental vitiligo group and the controls.
On comparing the three types with each other, high statistically significant difference was detected between the focal and segmental vitiligo, and the generalized and segmental vitiligo, while no statistically significant difference was detected between the generalized and focal types.