El-Refai Asmaa M, Elhabak Doaa Mohamed, Khashaba Rana Atef
Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Andrology, Benha University, Banha, Egypt.
Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Banha, Egypt.
Int J Trichology. 2020 Jul-Aug;12(4):182-187. doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_51_20. Epub 2020 Sep 19.
Alopecia areata (AA) is the second most frequent nonscarring alopecia after androgenetic alopecia; the trigger factor induces changes in the growth plate of hair bulb and leads to premature termination of anagen phase. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) can be the key molecule that participates in initiation and suppression of normal hair growth cycle. The role of EGF in the pathogenesis of AA is still uncertain.
This aim is to estimate the serum level of EGF in patients with AA trying to detect its role in AA pathogenesis and correlate it with the disease severity.
This case-control study included 60 clinically diagnosed patients with AA with different variants and severities and 25 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. EGF level was measured using ELISA.
The mean serum EGF was statistically significantly higher in patients than of controls ( < 0.0003). The EGF level was higher in patients with disease duration >1 month than patients with disease duration ≤ 1 month, and it was higher in patients with high recurrence than patients without recurrence ( > 0.05). The EGF in patients of severe AA was statistically significantly higher than moderate AA patients, and moderate cases were higher than mild AA patients ( = 0.0001). Furthermore, the level of EGF with scalp involvement was higher; the highest serum level of EGF marker in S4 (75%-99%) hair loss then S3 (50%-74% hair loss), illustrated in table (4) followed by different percentage of hair loss, difference statistically significant.
Elevated hair-specific growth factor as EGF is not always a good sign for hair growth and functioning promotor inducing hair recovery, but it may be linked to the pathogenesis of hair disorders as AA.
斑秃（AA）是继雄激素性脱发之后第二常见的非瘢痕性脱发；触发因素会导致毛球生长板发生变化，并导致生长期过早终止。表皮生长因子（EGF）可能是参与正常毛发生长周期启动和抑制的关键分子。EGF在AA发病机制中的作用仍不确定。
本研究旨在评估AA患者血清中EGF水平，试图检测其在AA发病机制中的作用，并将其与疾病严重程度相关联。
本病例对照研究纳入了60例临床诊断为不同类型和严重程度的AA患者以及25例年龄和性别匹配的健康对照。采用酶联免疫吸附测定法（ELISA）检测EGF水平。
患者血清EGF平均水平在统计学上显著高于对照组（<0.0003）。病程>1个月的患者EGF水平高于病程≤1个月的患者，复发率高的患者EGF水平高于未复发患者（>0.05）。重度AA患者的EGF水平在统计学上显著高于中度AA患者，中度患者高于轻度AA患者（=0.0001）。此外，头皮受累患者的EGF水平更高；S4（脱发75%-99%）组的EGF标志物血清水平最高，其次是S3（脱发50%-74%）组，不同脱发百分比组间差异具有统计学意义，见表（4）。
作为毛发特异性生长因子的EGF升高并不总是促进毛发生长和诱导毛发恢复的良好迹象，但它可能与AA等毛发疾病的发病机制有关。
