Expression of E-cadherin in Vitiligo Patients before and after Narrow Band UVB

Abstract

: Background: Vitiligo is the most common chronic acquired depigmenting disorder, resulting from the loss of melanocytes from the basal epidermal layer . Ecad is the major adhesion molecule mediating melanocyte–keratinocyte interactions and is essential for both the establishment of epithelial structures during development and numerous dynamic pro-cesses such as differentiation, polarity, proliferation, and migration during morphogenesis and homeostasis. The aim of this work : is to estimate the level of E- cadherin in serum of vitiligo patients before and after NB-UVB therapy as compared to normal control persons, to evaluate the role of E-cadherin in the pathogenesis of this disease . Patients and methods : The level of Ecadherin was detected in 30 venous blood samples of vitiligo patients before (group I) and after treatment with NB-UVB ( group II) and 30 healthy controls using ELISA. Informe consent was obtained from the participants in this study after ethical committee approval from Dermatology Department . Results: Serum level of E- cadherin was significantly higher in vitiligo patients before exposure to narrow band UVB compared to healthy controls and became lower in vitiligo patients after exposure to narrow band UVB but still higher than control. No detected relation was found between serum level of E- cadherin and patients’ age, skin type, symmetry ,vitiligo type ,last time of new lesions and VIDA (p-value >0.05). In addition, Serum Level of E-cadherin was significantly higher in Vitiligo patients with negative as compared with positive family history; with a statistically significant (p-value= 0.045),and slight negative significant linear correlation between serum level of E-cadherin and percentage of vitiligo in studied Vitiligo patients; (p=0.045). Coclusion :E- cadherin may play arole in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Recommendations: On the basis of our findings in this study and in conjunction with that from previous studies, we suggest that: 1) Additional studies on large number of cases in association with assessment of E-cadherin to evaluate its exact role in vitiligo pathogenesis. 2) Study gene polymorphism of E-cadherin gene and association with vitiligo. 3) Performing experimental study to evaluate the effect of E- cadherin up-regulation on vitiligo patients’ response to NB-UVB and other modalities of therapy.