Original article
English
Amal S. Matmati*, Abdalla I. El-Sherif**, Abu S. M. Giasuddin*
* Departments of Laboratory Medicine and **-Medicine (Dermatology Unit), Faculty of Medicine,Garyounis University, Benghazi, Libya
JMJ Vol. 4, No. 1 (Summer 2005): 52-56
Abstract
Serum levels of IgE, sCD23 and IL-12 were studied in 24 female Libyan patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) (age: 14-41 years; Mean ± SD: 21.5 ± 8.1 years), before treatment (AD-I) and on remission (AD-II) and compared with 24 healthy female controls (NC) (age: 13-45 years; Mean ± SD: 24.8 ± 7.9 years). Both IgE and sCD23 levels were elevated in AD-I compared to NC. These levels were lowered significantly on remission (AD-II), although still remained higher than NC . Both IgE and sCD23 levels were influenced by the severity of the disease positively and significantly (p< 0.05), suggesting a direct link between them. Interestingly, IL-12 level was low in AD-I and it returned to normal in AD-II The extent of reduction of IL-12 level in AD-I was independent of the severity of the disease (p>0.05). Significant negative correlations were observed between IgE Vs IL-12 (rs=0.539, p<0.01) and IL-12 Vs sCD23 (rs=0.411, p<0.05) in AD-I . Deficiency of IL-12 might lead to Th2 type cytokine differentiation. This may be the reason for the increased levels of IgE and sCD23 causing the manifestations of AD. Keywords: Atopic dermatitis, Immunoglobulin E, Soluble CD23, Interleukin-12 Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11