Serum prolactin concentration and its relationship with dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate concentration in chronic urticaria patients with positive and negative response to autologous serum skin test.

摘要

Prolactin is a common mediator of the neuro-endocrine-immune network (1). Prolactin and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) exert multiple immu-nomodulatory effects (I, 2) and their circulating levels change in a contrasting manner in the course of some immune-inflammatory diseases (3). Only some scarce information is available on the hormonal environment in chronic urticaria (CU) patients. Previously, we found that serum DHEA-S concentration is lower in chronic urticaria patients than in the healthy subjects (4, 5). We hypothesize that there are some changes in circulating levels of other stress associated and immunoregulatory hormones in CU patients. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated serum concentration of prolactin and cortisol in female patients suffering from CU showing positive and negative response to autologous serum skin test (ASST) as compared with the healthy subjects. In addition, the relationship between serum concentrations of prolactin and DHEA-S was assessed in such patients.