The Skin and Plasma Antioxidant Enzyme Activities in Patients With Vitiligo

Objective: It is known that oxidative stress could be an important factor in the pathogenesis of vitiligo dis- ease. We aimed to investigate the possible relationship between vitiligo pathogenesis and the change of antioxi- dant capacity of skin and plasma in patients with vitiligo. Material and Methods: In this study we have examined normal and vitiliginous skin and plasma GPx, SOD and CAT activities by spectrophotometric methods in 40 viti- ligo patients and 15 controls. Results: Results of tissue enzyme activities (as U/mg prt and Mean±SD); were 0.64±0.09; 0.89±0.15; 0.41±0.57 for SOD enzyme, 170.98±12.35; 182.13±13.48; 121.91+16.03 for GPx enzyme and 78.92±10.34; 94.99±10+47; 55.95±7.24 for CAT enzyme in involved skin, uninvolved skin and control groups respectively. Plasma levels of these enzymes were 37.19±1.53; 39.53±3.32 SOD enzyme, 381.57±12.67; 346.13±21.90 for GPx and 66.72±8.86; 61.24±6.32 for CAT enzyme in vitiligo and control groups respectively. Conclusion: There is no correlation between skin and plasma antioxidant enzyme activities in vitiligo patients, or in healthy controls. High glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities in vitiligous skin (p 0.05) espe- cially might be a result of anti oxidative stress response against oxidative stress via peroxides.