Evaluation Of Serum Il-23 In Active, Stable And Narrow Band Uvb Treated Vitiligo

Abstract

Background: IL-23 is a pro inflammatory cytokine and plays a vital role in many inflammatory diseases and cancers, biologics targeting IL-23 have been tried in many diseases.
Objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate serum levels of IL-23 in vitiligo patients also to determine its possible relation to disease activity, body surface area and duration.
Subjects and methods: this study was a case control study which was carried out on 40 patients diagnosed as non-segmental vitiligo and 30 age and sex matched healthy controls, all patients were subjected to 40 NB-UVB sessions (3 sessions /week) and the serum level of IL-23 was measured by ELISA before and after treatment.
Results: serum IL-23 before and after treatment by NB-UVB among active vitiligo patients showed a high significant reduction (p<0.01), the same results was present comparing active vitiligo cases with the controls, a significant correlation was found between serum IL-23 in all cases before NB-UVB treatment and body surface area (p<0.05). Conclusions: alteration of serum IL-23 may play an important role in the immune-pathogenesis of non-segmental vitiligo, serum IL-23 may be useful as a marker of activity in non-segmental vitiligo as well as therapeutic response marker.