Relationship between the serum level of transglutaminase 2-specific IgE and disease condition in patients with atopic dermatitis

Objective To detect the serum level of transglutaminase 2 (TG2) -specific IgE (sIgE) in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) , and to analyze its correlation with the disease condition. Methods A total of 77 patients with AD were enrolled into this study, including 44 patients aged ≥ 12 years and 33 patients aged < 12 years. Of the 77 patients, 20 were diagnosed with intrinsic AD, which was characterized by the absence of sIgE and total serum IgE values < 150 kU/L, and 49 with extrinsic AD characterized by positive (++) or even strongly positive sIgE for more than 1 kind of exogenous allergens, or total serum IgE values ≥ 150 kU/L. Immunocapture-biotinylated detector enzyme immunoassay was performed to detect the serum level of TG2-sIgE in 77 patients with AD, 40 adult patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV) and 30 healthy adult controls. Clinical data on the AD patients were recorded, including age, disease duration, SCORAD score, blood eosinophil count, levels of total IgE and TG2-sIgE. Results The serum levels of TG2-sIgE in AD patients aged ≥ 12 years, AD patients aged 0.05) . Conclusion The serum level of TG2-sIgE obviously increases in AD patients, so TG2 may be one kind of autoantigen in AD patients, but there is no significant correlation between the TG2-sIgE level and AD severity. Key words: Dermatitis, atopic; Transglutaminases; Immunoglobulin E; Autoantigens; Severity of illness index