Correlation between malondialdehyde levels and disease activity in vitiligo

Abstract

Background: Vitiligo is an acquired depigmented skin disease that occurs due to the death of melanocytes. There are various presumed theories about the cause of melanocyte death in vitiligo; one of them is oxidative stress theory. Lipid peroxidation is the primary manifestation of oxidative stress, producing malondialdehyde (MDA) as its end product. Malondialdehyde is a stable marker to assess the occurrence of oxidative stress. This study aims to prove the differences in serum MDA levels in the active vitiligo, stable vitiligo, and normal control groups.Method: This research is an analytical cross-sectional study involving 64 vitiligo patients with active and stable lesions and 20 normal controls. The study was conducted at Sanglah General Hospital Denpasar in February - November 2019. Serum MDA levels were measured to assess oxidative stress. The measurement of MDA levels was carried out by a spectrophotometer instrument using Competitive-ELISA method.Results: In this study, there were significant differences in MDA levels between active, stable vitiligo patients, and control group (p=0.000) with active vitiligo type have the highest MDA mean, followed by stable type and control group respectively.Conclusion: Increased serum MDA levels are an indicator of oxidative stress in vitiligo, which leads to melanocyte death and manifests as increased vitiligo disease activity. The results of this study support the role of oxidative stress in vitiligo pathogenesis and the use of oxidative stress indicators like serum MDA levels as biomarker in evaluating vitiligo disease activity.