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Background and Aims Chronic Urticaria is a common disorder which is defined by recurrent occurrence of wheals and sometimes angioedema. It has a notable influence on the patient’s quality of life. Regulation of the immune system is one of the important roles of the gut microbiota. Objective Comparing the frequency and bacterial load of Lactobacillus between patients with chronic urticaria and healthy controls. Methods Forty patients with chronic urticaria were recruited from the outpatient clinic of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Ain Shams University Hospitals and 40 age and sex matched healthy individuals were included in the present study. Stool samples were analyzed for determining the frequency and bacterial load of Lactobacillus. Results There was a difference among the frequency of detectable Lactobacillus in stool samples of patients with chronic urticaria and healthy controls. The relative amounts of Lactobacillus were significantly higher in fecal samples from controls compared to patients with chronic urticaria (P < 0.001). Conclusion Our study showed that some types of gut microbiota are found in normal individuals in a higher amounts than patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Background Effects of the cytokine system, in which of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) is a part, on serotonin metabolism as well as on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, may induce changes in the structure and function of the brain, possibly leading to the development of depression in SLE patients. For this purpose, we aimed to assess serum TNF-α levels in SLE patients, and to explore its possible relationship with depression among these patients.Methods: 60 SLE adult patients were enrolled in this study and further subdivided into two equal groups (30 with active SLE and 30 with inactive SLE) using SLEDAI score, in addition to 30 age and sex matched healthy controls. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) to provide broad coverage of psychiatric diagnoses was done for all subjects, and severity of depression was assessed using Beck depression Inventory. TNF-α levels were measured using ELISA technique. Results: Depression was identified in 63.3% of active SLE group, 40% in the inactive SLE group and 16.7% in the control group with p value <0.001. TNF-α levels were higher significantly in the active group versus inactive group and control p value <0.001.In the multivariate analysis, sera TNF-α levels were independently associated with depressive symptoms odds ratio = 1.004, 95% CI = 1.001 to 1.006, p-value =0.020). Conclusions: Depression was more prevalent among SLE patients with active disease. Serum TNF-α was the only independent predictor of depression in SLE patients.