Evaluation of elafin as a marker of skin fibrosis -a preliminary study

Abstract

Ela n can act as a possible serum marker modulated in multiple pathological conditions, including brosis and vascular remodelling. The aim af our pilot study was to check the possible role of ela n in patients with skin brosis, including systemic sclerosis (SSc), chronic variants of graft versus host disease (cGvHD) and different variants of morphea regarding its relationship with the severity of skin involvement and clinical parameters. The study included 125 Caucasian patients and 30 healthy controls. In all groups serum ela n was measured using commercially available enzymelinked immunosorbent assay kits (Elisa). cGVHD patients presented signi cantly higher mean plasma levels of ela n in comparison to other groups of patients and there was no statistically signi cant difference in mean serum levels of ela n between morphea and SSc patients. Also there was no difference in mean serum levels of ela n in morphea patients between its clinical variants and severity of the disease, although the non-active stage morphea presented higher values of ela n concentrations. There was no correlation between ela n concentration and Rodnan skin score, lungs involvement and GFR in SSc. We noticed the elevated levels of ela n in the group of patients with cGvHD, which may suggest a relationship of this marker with a chronic disease process, including brosis. We did not nd the association of ela n and SSc as well as morphea (including severity of the disease process and phase). However, taking into account the inconsistent role of ela n in brosis, the complex regulation of the ela n gene in human keratinocytes, as well as the multifaceted involvement in skin in ammation, further studies are needed.