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The role of chemokine CXC-motif receptor 3 in vitiligo: a clinical and immunohistochemical study

Objectives The present study aimed at evaluating the immunohistochemical expression of CXCR3 in the involved skin in vitiligo patients and to correlate its evaluated expression with the available clinicopathological parameters in those patients. Background Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disorder in which the loss of melanocytes is mainly attributed to defective autoimmune mechanisms, cytotoxic mechanisms, an intrinsic defect of melanocytes, oxidant–antioxidant mechanisms, and neural mechanisms. The assessment of maintenance of vitiligo could be related to CXCR3 expression. The treatment of vitiligo remains a challenge. Patients and methods This case–control study was carried out on 35 patients with variable degrees of vitiligo severity. They were recruited from the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University Hospital from May 2016 to March 2017. Normal skin biopsies were obtained from the control group which included 20 persons of age, sex, Fitzpatrick skin phototype, and occupation-matched healthy participants attending the Plastic Surgery Department. Results The results were collected, tabulated, and statistically analyzed by an IBM-compatible personal computer with SPSS statistical package, version 20 (SPSS Inc. Released 2011, IBM SPSS statistics for Windows, version 20.0). The relative expression of CXCR3 chemokine in vitiligo patients showed that the percent of CXCR3 expression in the epidermis was significantly higher in vitiligo cases (median, 80) than controls (median, 20) (P = 0.001). H score was significantly higher in vitiligo cases (median, 100) than controls (median, 30) (P = 0.003). Conclusion CXCR3 may have an active role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.