Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology (Apr 2019)

Role of insulin-like growth factor-1 in skin tags: a clinical, genetic and immunohistochemical study in a sample of Egyptian patients

  • Farag AGA,
  • Abdu Allah AMK,
  • El-Rebey HS,
  • Mohamed Ibraheem KI,
  • Mohamed ASED,
  • Labeeb AZ,
  • Elgazzar AE,
  • Haggag MM

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 255 – 266

Abstract

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Azza Gaber Antar Farag,1 Azza Mohamed Kamel Abdu Allah,2 Hala Said El-Rebey,3 Kawthar Ibraheem Mohamed Ibraheem,4,5 Asmaa Shams El Dein Mohamed,3 Azza Zaghlol Labeeb,6 Ayman Elhussien Elgazzar,1 Magda Mostafa Haggag11Department of Dermatology, Andrology and STDs, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shibīn al Kawm, Egypt; 2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shibīn al Kawm, Egypt; 3Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shibīn al Kawm, Egypt; 4Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt; 5Microbiology Department, Taibah University, Medina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shibīn al Kawm, EgyptBackground: Skin tags (STs) are benign connective tissue neoplasms, in which insulin-like growth factor −1 (IGF-1) has a mitogenic and antiapoptotic activity.Purpose: We aimed to study for the first time, the possible role of IGF-1 (CA) 19 and rs6214 gene polymorphisms, and its tissue immunoreactivity in the pathogenesis of STs.Patients and methods: This case–control study included 40 ST patients and 20 controls. We searched for (CA) 19 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) using conversional PCR and for rs6214 gene polymorphism using real-time PCR. IGF-1 tissue immunoreactivity was investigated using polyclonal IGF-1 antibody.Results: IGF-1 immunoreactivity showed significantly strong upregulation in epidermis (p=0.002) and dermal components (endothelial cells [p=0.038] and fibroblasts [p=0.004]) of excised STs than control skin. TT and CT rs6214 genotypes and its T allele were significantly associated with STs (p=0.006 and P=0.002, respectively). Also (p=0.013). These 4 genotypes were significantly associated with development of multiple STs and epidermal IGF-1 tissue immunoreactivity in studied patients.Conclusions: IGF-1 (CA) 19 and rs6214 gene polymorphisms may contribute to a predisposition of STs in Egyptian patients, the role of which could be mediated through local upregulation of IGF-1 in cutaneous tissues.Keywords: skin tags, insulin growth factor-1, gene polymorphism, immunohistochemistry

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