Vitiligo is an acquired depigmented disorder that causes white spots on the skin due to the loss of melanocytes. It is a common disease which accounts for 0.5-1% of the whole population. It is a refractory skin disease with 25-50 thousand patients in Korea. And it is often caused in the exposed areas of the patient, causing a great deal of mental and social dysfunction in the patient's life, and may lead to suicide attempts.
A nationwide study conducted by the Korean Academy of vitiligo showed that 61.8% of patients with vitiligo always have emotional impairment. In addition, the incidence of recurrence is high, and the recurrence rate is reported up to 40% within one year after the discontinuation of treatment. Therefore, development of a marker for monitoring the disease activity is very important and desperately needed. HMGB1 is a protein located in the nucleus, such as histone, and binds to genes and transcription factors to stabilize and control the DNA transcription. However, when released from the cells, it acts as a danger signal and is thought to cause autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory diseases and lupus. The present study demonstrated through ex vivo tissue culture that HMGB1 can induce melanocyte apoptosis by inducing apoptosis and also observed that serum concentration of HMGB1 was higher in vitiligo patients than in normal controls . The aim of this study is to investigate the usefulness of HMGB1 as a biomarker for predicting the severity of disease and to confirm the association between HMGB1 levels and vitiligo activity.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
43
Department of Dermatology, Severance Hospital, Cutaneous Biology Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine
Seoul, South Korea
Serum HMGB1
Comparative analysis of serum HMGB1 between active non-segmental vitiligo and normal controls
Time frame: Baseline
Serum HMGB1
Analysis of serum HMGB1 between segmental vitiligo and normal control
Time frame: 3 months
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