Summary
Background
Little is known about factors affecting the quality of life (QoL) of patients with vitiligo, and previous studies have shown conflicting results.
Objectives
To explore the QoL of ...patients with vitiligo and to identify factors affecting QoL.
Methods
A nationwide questionnaire‐based study was conducted with 1123 patients with vitiligo recruited from 21 hospitals in Korea from July 2015 to June 2016. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire for demographic information and the Skindex‐29 instrument. Mild or severely impaired QoL in patients with vitiligo was assessed according to each domain (symptoms, functioning and emotions) of Skindex‐29. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with QoL.
Results
Of the enrolled participants, 609 were male and 514 female, with a mean age of 49·8 years (range 20–84). The median duration of disease was 3·0 years (range 0–60). Using multivariate logistic regression modelling, the involvement of visible body parts and a larger affected body surface area were consistently associated with QoL impairment in all three domains of Skindex‐29. Additionally, the QoL of patients aged 20–59 years, who potentially had a more active social life than older patients, was associated with functional impairment. Furthermore, a higher educational background was associated with emotional impairment.
Conclusions
A multitude of factors significantly influence the QoL of patients with vitiligo. A better appreciation of these factors would help the management of these patients.
What's already known about this topic?
Quality of life is highly impaired in patients with vitiligo.
What does this study add?
The involvement of visible body parts and a larger affected body surface area were consistently associated with impaired symptoms, functioning and emotions.
Vitiligo with nonvisible lesions also considerably compromises quality of life; vitiligo should not be regarded as a cosmetic problem.
Patients aged 20–59 years experienced significant functional impairment, and those with a higher educational background had more impairment in their emotions.
Linked Comment: Ezzedine and Eleftheriadou. Br J Dermatol 2018; 178:28–29.
Plain language summary available online
Respond to this article
An experiment to search for light sterile neutrinos is conducted at a reactor with a thermal power of 2.8 GW located at the Hanbit nuclear power complex. The search is done with a detector consisting ...of a ton of Gd-loaded liquid scintillator in a tendon gallery approximately 24 m from the reactor core. The measured antineutrino event rate is 1976 per day with a signal to background ratio of about 22. The shape of the antineutrino energy spectrum obtained from the eight-month data-taking period is compared with a hypothesis of oscillations due to active-sterile antineutrino mixing. No strong evidence of 3+1 neutrino oscillation is found. An excess around the 5 MeV prompt energy range is observed as seen in existing longer-baseline experiments. The mixing parameter sin^{2}2θ_{14} is limited up to less than 0.1 for Δm_{41}^{2} ranging from 0.2 to 2.3 eV^{2} with a 90% confidence level.
This study evaluated the capacity of 23 multidrug-resistant (MDR) clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii to adhere to respiratory epithelial cell surfaces and to form biofilm on a polystyrene ...surface. All 23 A. baumannii isolates were capable of adhering efficiently to respiratory epithelial cells, and biofilm production was positively associated with epithelial cell adhesiveness (r 0.80, p <0.0001). In the presence of the chelating agent EDTA, biofilm formation was markedly reduced. Cell adhesiveness and biofilm formation were significantly higher in isolates carrying the blaPER-1 gene as compared with isolates without this extended-spectrum β-lactamase gene (p <0.005 and p <0.001, respectively). Further examination by RT-PCR showed a positive correlation between the level of expression of the blaPER-1 gene and the level of biofilm formation (r 0.89, p <0.0001) and cell adhesiveness (r 0.74, p <0.006). Overall, the study demonstrated a high capacity of clinical isolates of MDR A. baumannii to form biofilm and to adhere to respiratory epithelial cells. This feature, combined with multidrug resistance, might contribute to the survival of these organisms and their dissemination in the hospital environment.
Metastasis is the predominant cause of death in breast cancer patients. Several lines of evidence have shown that microRNAs (miRs) can have an important role in cancer metastasis. Using isogenic ...pairs of low and high metastatic lines derived from a human breast cancer line, we have identified miR-149 to be a suppressor of breast cancer cell invasion and metastasis. We also identified GIT1 (G-protein-coupled receptor kinase-interacting protein 1) as a direct target of miR-149. Knockdown of GIT1 reduced migration/invasion and metastasis of highly invasive cells. Re-expression of GIT1 significantly rescued miR-149-mediated inhibition of cell migration/invasion and metastasis. Expression of miR-149 impaired fibronectin-induced focal adhesion formation and reduced phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and paxillin, which could be restored by re-expression of GIT1. Inhibition of GIT1 led to enhanced protein degradation of paxillin and α5β1 integrin via proteasome and lysosome pathways, respectively. Moreover, we found that GIT1 depletion in metastatic breast cancer cells greatly reduced α5β1-integrin-mediated cell adhesion to fibronectin and collagen. Low level of miR-149 and high level of GIT1 was significantly associated with advanced stages of breast cancer, as well as with lymph node metastasis. We conclude that miR-149 suppresses breast cancer cell migration/invasion and metastasis by targeting GIT1, suggesting potential applications of the miR-149-GIT1 pathway in clinical diagnosis and therapeutics.
The RENO experiment reports more precisely measured values of θ_{13} and |Δm_{ee}^{2}| using ∼2200 live days of data. The amplitude and frequency of reactor electron antineutrino (νover ¯_{e}) ...oscillation are measured by comparing the prompt signal spectra obtained from two identical near and far detectors. In the period between August 2011 and February 2018, the far (near) detector observed 103 212 (850 666) νover ¯_{e} candidate events with a background fraction of 4.8% (2.0%). A clear energy and baseline dependent disappearance of reactor νover ¯_{e} is observed in the deficit of the measured number of νover ¯_{e}. Based on the measured far-to-near ratio of prompt spectra, we obtain sin^{2}2θ_{13}=0.0896±0.0048(stat)±0.0047(syst) and |Δm_{ee}^{2}|=2.68±0.12(stat)±0.07(syst)×10^{-3} eV^{2}.
Mammalian DNA polymerase δ (Pol δ), a four-subunit enzyme, plays a crucial and versatile role in DNA replication and DNA repair processes. We have reconstituted human Pol δ complexes in insect cells ...infected with a single baculovirus into which one or more subunits were assembled. This system allowed for the efficient expression of the tetrameric Pol δ holoenzyme, the p125/p50 core dimer, the core+p68 trimer and the core+p12 trimer, as well as the p125 catalytic subunit. These were isolated in milligram amounts with reproducible purity and specific activities by a highly standardized protocol. We have systematically compared their activities in order to gain insights into the roles of the p12 and p68 subunits, as well as their responses to PCNA. The relative specific activities (apparent k(cat)) of the Pol δ holoenzyme, core+p68, core+p12 and p125/p50 core were 100, 109, 40, and 29. The corresponding apparent K(d)'s for PCNA were 7.1, 8.7, 9.3 and 73 nM. Our results support the hypothesis that Pol δ interacts with PCNA through multiple interactions, and that there may be a redundancy in binding interactions that may permit Pol δ to adopt flexible configurations with PCNA. The abilities of the Pol δ complexes to fully extend singly primed M13 DNA were examined. All the subassemblies except the core+p68 were defective in their abilities to completely extend the primer, showing that the p68 subunit has an important function in synthesis of long stretches of DNA in this assay. The core+p68 trimer could be reconstituted by addition of p12.