Evaluation of the effect and mechanism of action of local phenytoin in treatment of vitiligo.

Evaluation of the effect and mechanism of action of local phenytoin in treatment of vitiligo. J Immunoassay Immunochem. 2017 Jun 22;: Authors: Abdou AG, Abdelwahed Gaber M, Elnaidany NF, Elnagar A Abstract There are many theories explaining vitiligo such as genetic, autoimmune, neural, free radicals, biochemical, intrinsic defect, melanocytorrhagy and convergent theories. Phenytoin is a widely used anticonvulsant, which is used in cutaneous medicine for treatment of ulcers and epidermolysis bullosa. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of topical phenytoin gel in treatment of vitiligo patients and explaining the underlying mechanism using immunohistochemistry for evaluation of HMB45, CD4 and CD8. Only nine patients out of 28 experienced response to phenytoin in the form of dull white color change and light brown color. Post-phenytoin treatment biopsies showed decreased density of inflammation, increased melanin and increased HMB45 positive cells together with increased number of CD4 positive lymphocytes and decreased number of CD8 positive lymphocytes. These observations did not reach significant level (P>0.05). High percentage of CD4 positive lymphocytes was significantly associated with long duration of vitiligo (p=0.03) and segmental vitiligo type (p=0.02). The current study applied phenytoin as 2% concentrated gel for 3 months, which is a relatively short duration without observed side effects through this peri...
Source: Journal of Immunoassay and Immunochemistry - Category: Biochemistry Tags: J Immunoassay Immunochem Source Type: research