Serum Melatonin Levels in Patients with Behçet’s Disease

Abstract

Objective:Melatonin (MLT) hormone has been reported to play a role in the immunopathogenesis and aetiology of many chronic inflammatory diseases. We aimed to investigate the role of MLT in Behçet’s disease (BD) by determining the serum MLT levels of patients with BD.Materials and Methods:A total of 40 patients (mean age, 35.3±9.0 years; age range, 19-57 years), including 19 women and 21 men, and 40 healthy individuals, including 20 women and 20 men, matched for age and gender (mean age, 37.7±11.2 years; age range, 19-65 years) were included in this study. Serum MLT levels of the participants were determined, and their demographic data, laboratory parameters, and clinical features were recorded. Disease activity was evaluated according to the BD current activity form 2006. The relationship between disease activity and serum MLT level was examined.Results:There were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics and other laboratory parameters between the groups, except for serum MLT levels and mean platelet volume values (p<0.05). Serum MLT values were found to be significantly lower in patients having headache than in those without headache (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference in other clinical parameters. No significant correlation was found between the serum MLT levels of patients with BD and laboratory parameters and disease activity scores.Conclusion:Although this study provides evidence that MLT plays a possible role in the immunopathogenesis of BD in patients with a headache history, there was no association between MLT level and disease activity. We suggest that further studies are needed to determine the possible role of MLT in BD and that our findings should be evaluated by future research.

Keywords

• behçet’s disease
• melatonin
• headache
• immunopathogenesis