LAUSR

OBJECTIVE The aim: To check the link between interleukins serum levels (IL-2, IL-10, IL-17A) and alopecia areata (AA) development, severity, and clinical course. PATIENTS AND METHODS Materials and methods: Totally 104 patients with AA and 30 matched control individuals were enrolled in the study. The serum levels of IL-2, IL-10, and IL-17A were evaluated in all participants. Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) was used to assess the AA severity. The SPSS 22.0 and Python environment were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Results: The comparative analysis has demonstrated that the serum levels of IL-2 and IL-17A in AA patients are higher than in controls (P = 0.008 and P = 0.013, respectively). The blood level of IL-2 in patients with AA depends on disease severity (P = 0.006) and clinical subtype (P = 0.016). The serum concentration of IL-17A was also associated with AA severity (P = 0.010) and subtype (P = 0.004). The positive correlation between SALT score and serum level of IL-17A (r = 0.33, P = 0.001) and IL-2 (r = 0.28, P = 0.004) was revealed. The strong positive correlation between IL-17A and IL-2 was also detected (r = 0.49, P < 0.001). There was no link between AA occurrence, manifestation and IL-10 amount. However, the weak negative correlation between SALT and IL-10 serum level was revealed (r = -0.20, P = 0.042). CONCLUSION Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that the serum levels of IL-2 and IL-17A are intercorrelated and associated with AA development, severity, and clinical type. The link between IL-10 serum level and AA was not detected.