Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: Psoriasis is considered to be a T-cell-mediated inmunological skin disease, with a preponderance of type I cytokines. Leptin, promotes type I cytokine synthesis and supresses type 2 cytokine production. In this study we aimed to investigate serum leptin levels in psoriasis patients, association between body mass index (BMI) and disease severity. METHODS: Eighty patients with psoriasis (31 male, 49 female) and 80 age and sex matched healthy control subjects (32 male, 48 female) were recruited in this study. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated for subjects. Serum leptin levels was determined with ELISA method. RESULTS: The mean serum leptin concentration was statistically different in patients with psoriasis (9.48 ng/ml) when compared with that in healthy control subjects (5.94 ng/ml) (p<0.05). When we compare the leptin levels of psoriatic patients with control group; female patients have high concentration of leptin (p<0.01) but male patients do not (p>0.05). Also it is observed in female patients that there is a positive relation between the serum levels of leptin and the disease beginning age (p<0.05) but not in male patients (p>0.05). There is an important relation between the serum leptin levels and BMI in both male and female patient population (p<0.01). But there is not any correlation between family history and disease severity (p>0.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We conclude that leptin has a correlation with BMI and may have a role in the chronic inflamation of psoriasis but it can not be used as a marker in evaluation of disease severity

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