Abstract
Background:
Oxidative damage to melanocytes, resulting from an imbalance between the damaging oxidative pathways and the protective anti-oxidants likely plays a pathogenic role in vitiligo.
Aim:
To evaluate three parameters related to the oxidative stress (OS) pathway namely malon-di-aldehyde (MDA), a marker of oxidative damage, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and reduced glutathione (rGSH) (both antioxidants)in patients with active and stable vitiligo with either localized or generalized disease. Patients/Methods Sixty clinically diagnosed vitiligo patients were categorized into generalized (n = 30) or localized vitiligo (n = 30) and were further sub grouped according to their disease activity into active and stable groups. Thirty healthy volunteers were included in the control group. ELISA was used for the evaluation of MDA, SOD and r GSH.
Results:
The patient group demonstrated significantly raised levels of MDA and significantly decreased levels of SOD and rGSH compared to the control group. Further, the OS parameters were significantly more deranged in patients with generalized disease (all three - MDA, rGSH, SOD) and an active disease (MDA) as compared to those with localized and stable disease respectively.
Conclusion:
Our findings suggest an important role of OS in relation to vitiligo activity and severity. Although the OS parameters were deranged in all subsets of patients, with respect to controls, the derangement of oxidative damage marker (MDA) in generalized and active disease groups was most marked. Disease remains active when the oxidative damage becomes higher but is unmatched with the anti-oxidant reserve which doesn't proportionately increase.
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