Microchimerism in Behçet's disease

Lack of detectable fetal microchimerism in psoriasis vulgaris lesions and in non-affected skin in spite of its presence in peripheral blood CD34-positive and CD34-negative cells

BACKGROUND

Microchimerism is defined as a stable presence of low numbers of cells derived from a different individual due to cell transfer between twins or between mother and fetus during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE

Fetal cells in the organism of the mother (FMc) are postulated to play a role in autoimmune diseases. Psoriasis is a disease which has an autoimmune component, but no study on microchimerism in this disease has been reported.

METHODS

The easiest way to detect microchimerism is to look for male cells in blood or other tissues of a woman who previously delivered a son. Here, we looked for the presence of male cells in mononuclear cell subpopulations from peripheral blood and in skin samples of women with psoriasis and of healthy women.

RESULTS

We detected FMc in similar proportions of patients and controls in CD4+, CD8+ and CD34+ cells, whereas in CD34- cells they were present in higher fraction of controls, and similar but non-significant difference was observed in CD19+ cells. No microchimeric cells were detected in patients' skin samples, both from affected and non-affected skin, or in skin tissue from healthy control individuals.

CONCLUSION

Our result does not prove the involvement of microchimerism in the aetiology of psoriasis.

Microchimerism in alopecia areata

BACKGROUND

Autoimmunity is the main etiopathogenetic factor in alopecia areata. Microchimerism is the existence of allogeneic DNA in a living creature. There are variable studies investigating the role of microchimerism on the etiopathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. To our knowledge, no report has investigated the relationship between microchimerism and alopecia areata.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to investigate the possible role of microchimerism on alopecia areata.

METHODS

We analyzed SRY gene levels as indicators of fetal microchimerism in our patient group. The patients were 29 women with alopecia areata, over 18 years old, who had visited our clinic between 2010 and 2013. Patients were divided into two groups; group 1 consisted of 14 patients having a son and group 2, 15 patients either nulliparous or having a daughter.

RESULTS

Seventeen of 29 patients (58.6%) and four of 103 controls (3.9%) showed presence of an SRY gene. The difference between the patient and control groups was statistically significant (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

As a result of our study, microchimerism may be associated with the etiopathogenesis of alopecia areata. However, we think there is a need for a larger series of studies to support this hypothesis.