Keywords: Alopecia; Alopecia areata; Female; Male; Quality of life

Introduction : Isotretinoin has been successfully used for the treatment of acne vulgaris. Aim : To investigate the effects of isotretinoin on body mass index (BMI), to determine whether isotretinoin causes any changes in serum adiponectin, leptin, and ghrelin levels in acne vulgaris...

Background: Due to the chronic, recurrent nature of Psoriasis vulgaris (PV) and lack of definitive treatment for the disease, patients often resort to alternative treatments. Physicians seem to have low awareness of this issue. Objectives: To elicit the perceptions of 1,621 PV patients on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and examine factors reported to worsen PV. Methods: The patients’ sociodemographic characteristics, Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), disease duration, and severity were recorded, and the patients’ CAM use was questioned in detail. The patients were also asked about factors that worsened PV and their experiences with a gluten-free diet. Results: Of the patients, 56.51% had used CAM. The mean age, illness duration, PASI score,s and DLQI of those using CAM were significantly higher. CAM use were significantly higher in those with facial, genital involvement, and arthralgia/arthritis. The patients mostly referred to CAM when PV became severe (46.4%). Of the CAM users, 45.52% used herbal topicals. The physicians of 67.03% did not inquire whether they used CAM. Of the participants, 37.73% considered that stress worsened their disease. Gluten-free diet did not affect PV symptoms in 52.22%. Conclusions: Patients’ CAM use is often overlooked by dermatologists. Our results showed that more than half the patients used CAM and did not share this information with their physicians. Therefore, the awareness of physicians should be increased and patients should be asked about the use of CAM and directed to the appropriate medical treatment options by physicians.

Patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria often want to be informed about dietary modifications. There have been many studies evaluating dietary approaches in chronic spontaneous urticaria. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and chronic spontaneous urticaria. In this cross-sectional case-control observational study, 100 patients (70 males and 30 females, mean age: 38.6±13.0 years) with chronic spontaneous urticaria and age- and sex-matched 100 healthy controls 70 males and 30 females, mean age: 38.7±13.8 years) were enrolled. A validated 14-item questionnaire evaluating the Mediterranean diet score was used for the assessment of adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The severity and the control of chronic spontaneous urticaria were assessed by Urticaria Activity Score over 7 days and Urticaria Control Test, respectively. The mean Mediterranean diet score in the patient group was 5.40±1.88, whereas in healthy controls it was 6.30±1.39 (p<0.001). The Urticaria Activity Score over 7 days score of the patients was negatively correlated with the Mediterranean diet score, whereas the Urticaria Control Test score was positively correlated. We reported that adherence to the Mediterranean diet may be an independent factor that decreases the risk of chronic spontaneous urticaria. It may also reduce the severity of chronic spontaneous urticaria symptoms.

Citation: Ayvaz HH, Öztürk KH, Seyirci MA, et al. The role of EREG, PTPN1, and SERPINB7 genes in the pathogenesis of psoriasis: May SERPINB7 be protective and a marker of severity for psoriasis?. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(2):e2023085. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1302a85 Accepted: September 26, 2022; Published: April 2023 Copyright: ©2023 Ayvaz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. Funding: None. Competing interests: None. Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication. Corresponding author: Havva Hilal Ayvaz, Çünür Mah SDÜ Dermatology Department, 32260, Isparta/TURKEY. E-mail: drhhilalayvaz@gmail.com , Phone number: +905309505907 Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatological disease with complex pathogenesis in which many immune system cells, including keratinocytes, play a role. Many genes regulate the proliferation of keratinocytes and other immune cells that have essential roles in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.The expressions of EREG, PTPN1, and SERPINB7 genes were shown as upregulated in psoriatic skins in a few studies previously. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the expressions of these genes in psoriatic lesional skin and com-pared them with non-lesional adjacent skin of the same patients and normal skin of healthy controls. Results: Our results revealed that the expressions of EREG and PTPN1 genes were upregulated,whereas the SERPINB7 gene expression was down regulated in the psoriatic skin of the patients than normal skin of controls. Moreover, the expression level of the SERPINB7 gene was also negatively correlated with the severity of the disease among patients. Conclusions: According to our results, overexpression of EREG and PTPN1 genes, and decreased expression of SERPINB7 gene may lead to the development of psoriasis. Keywords : psoriasis, epiregulin, tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type 1, serine proteinase inhibitors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.