👤 Julia Nowowiejska

Psoriasis, vitiligo and lichen planus (LP) are autoimmune skin diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. Angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) is a member of angiopoietin-like proteins, which play an important role in lipid metabolism, and its serum concentration has been proposed as a biomarker of cardiometabolic complications, especially coronary artery disease (CAD). The study involved 56 patients with abovementioned dermatoses and 29 sex- and age-matched volunteers without dermatoses. ANGPTL4 serum concentration was measured by ELISA. ANGPTL4 concentration was statistically significantly higher in patients with LP compared to the control group (p < 0.01); moreover, it was significantly higher than in patients with psoriasis and vitiligo (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in ANGPTL4 concentration between patients with psoriasis or vitiligo and controls. There was no correlation between ANGPTL4 concentration and age or BMI in all study groups. There was a positive correlation between ANGPTL4 concentration and fasting glucose (R = 0.43) and AST activity (R = 0.39) in psoriatic patients and ALT activity in patients with vitiligo (R = 0.44). ANGPTL4 could be a potential marker of metabolic complications in patients with LP, especially CAD. Perhaps patients with LP are more prone to CAD compared to the other two dermatoses, which requires further research. Show less

Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease, which is tightly associated with metabolic disorders. Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and sortilin (SORT) are molecules engaged in lipid metabolism of proatherogenic properties. They have been hardly ever studied in psoriasis before. Serum CETP and SORT concentrations were measured in 33 patients with plaque-type psoriasis before and after 12 weeks of treatment with methotrexate or acitretin. There was no significant difference in CEPT and SORT serum concentrations between patients and controls. Positive correlations between CETP after the treatment with acitretin and activity of transaminases (R = 0.65, R = 0.56, respectively) were noted. CETP was positively related with triglycerides (R = 0.49), glucose (R = 0.54) and CRP (R = 0.64) before the treatment with methotrexate, which all disappeared afterwards. Systemic therapy with methotrexate caused normalization of SORT concentration. There was significant correlation between SORT and WBC (p < 0.01) and CRP (p < 0.05). CETP and SORT cannot be used as individual biomarkers. Nevertheless, they show some interesting relations with other parameters. Increased concentration of CETP perhaps could investigated as a marker of liver side effects of acitretin treatment in psoriatics. SORT could be considered as a new indicator of metabolically induced inflammation in psoriasis. Methotrexate may be preferred in patients with high SORT concentrations. Further studies are needed to establish their exact role in psoriatic patients. Show less