Oxidant and antioxidant status in patients with Psoriasis
Payasvi Baweja1, B.K. Agarwal2, V.K. Sharma3 and Anna Alex4
1,2Department of Biochemistry; 3Department of Medicine; 4Department of Dermatology, Gandhi Medical College & Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal-462 001 (India)
ABSTRACT
Psoriasis vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by well-demarcated erythema and scaly plaques. The pathogenesis of psoriasis still remains unclear. Recently it has been suggested that increased ROS production and deficient function of antioxidant systems activities may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although there are several studies investigating oxidant / antioxidant systems in psoriatic patients, the data obtained from these studies in not concordant. In this study super oxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity, and malon dialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant potential (AOP) levels in 50 patients with clinically diagnosed psoriasis were investigated and compared with those of 50 age and sex matched healthy control subjects. Clinical severity of the disease was determined according to psoriasis area and severity index (PASI score) in the patients. Our results showed levels of MDA and SOD were significantly increased (P<0.001) whereas AOP were significantly decreased (P<0.001) in patients with psoriasis as compared to controls. There was no correlation between PASI scores and plasma SOD, MDA and AOP levels. These results provide some evidence regarding the role of increased ROS and decreased antioxidant activity in psoriasis.