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Assessment of serum vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 in psoriatic patients

Objective This study aimed to assess serum vascular endothelial growth factor-3 (VEGFR-3) as a potential biomarker of psoriasis and correlate its expression with the clinical parameters. Background VEGFR-3 has gained a lot of interest in psoriasis research owing to its role in disease progression. Psoriasis biomarkers could potentially aid in the diagnosis, tracking disease progression, and monitoring response to treatments. Patients and methods This prospective case–control study was conducted on 40 patients with psoriasis and 40 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls. Patients were selected from the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic at Menoufia University Hospital. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay validation studies were conducted on psoriatic patients to assay the level of human VEGFR-3 compared with healthy controls. Results This study showed that psoriasis area and severity index score ranged from 0.60 to 32.5 with a median of 4.5 and was divided to mild (37 patients, 93%), moderate (two patients, 5%), and severe (one patient, 2%). On studying the relation of serum VEGFR-3 levels among psoriatic patients, there was no significant correlations observed regarding age (r=−0.26, P = 0.873), BMI (kg/m2) (r = 0.073, P = 0.654), duration of disease (r=−0.106, P = 0.515), and psoriasis area and severity index score (r = 0.177, P = 0.276). In the psoriasis group, the VEGFR-3 level ranged from 5.03 to 72.34 ng/ml with a median of 8.78 and in the control group ranged from 2.56 to 73.87 ng/ml with a median of 6.33. There was a significant difference regarding serum VEGFR-3 levels between cases and control groups (P = 0.001). Conclusion This study showed that serum levels of VEGFR-3 could demonstrate the disease activity in psoriatic patients. Measuring VEGFR-3 may help predict psoriasis 'flare' early on. Also, it could be used to detect drug responses according to observable symptom changes.