Background: Parthenium contact dermatitis is a major health problem caused by a cosmopolitan weed Parthenium hysterophorus. It is a T cell-mediated immune injury and disease manifests as itchy erythematous papules, papulovesicular and plaque lesions on exposed areas of the body. We studied the involvement of T(H)1/T(H)2/T(H)17/Treg type responses by assaying various cytokines in Parthenium dermatitis.
Methods: The study includes 50 patients of Parthenium dermatitis confirmed by patch testing and 50 healthy subjects. The serum levels of T(H)1, T(H)2, T(H)17 and Treg cytokines were estimated by high sensitivity sandwich ELISA and were compared statistically between groups using ANOVA.
Results: The mean concentration of T(H)1 cytokines (p<0.001) and IL-17 (p<0.001) were increased significantly as compared to controls. In contrast, decrease in levels of IL-10 (p<0.002) and TGF-β (p<0.001) were significant and levels of IL-4 (p<0.262) were insignificant whereas no alterations in the total IgE concentrations (p<0.976) was observed.
Conclusion: The induction of T(H)1 and T(H)17 cytokines reinforce the need of detailed analysis of immune dysregulation in Parthenium dermatitis and might add some insight in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and current treatment modalities of this disease.
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