The Role of Cytomegalovirus in Alopecia Areata: PCR and "Nested" PCR Study

Abstract

Alopecia areata (AA) is one of the most common non-cicatricial alopecias. It is an inflammatory, usually reversible disorder, characterized by the spontaneous appearance of circumscribed patches of complete hair loss, which, when severe, can result in loss of all scalp (alopecia totalis) and body hair (alopecia universalis).

The etiology of AA remains unclear. In the last few years, conflicting reports have been published about the role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in the causation of AA. Hence, the aim of this work was to search for CMV in the lesional tissue in patients of AA by PCR and nested PCR in order to shed light on the possibility of a role for CMV in this disease.

• Out of the 20 patients, included in this study, 5 (25%) were in the age group 10 to less thah 20, which contrasts with other reports in the

literature stating that 60% of patients present with their first patch before

20 years of age. This may be attributed to the small number of patients in our study. Psychic disorders were observed in 25% (5 patients) of all patients. The literature is widely controversial in this respect. Twenty five percent of the studied patients (n=5) were found to have CMV DNA, using nested PCR.

Five out of the twenty studied patients revealed positive results of CMV by PCR and nested PCR. This stands midway in the literature between several conflicting reports and support the notion that CMV in humans may be a potential trigger for onset of AA in a minority of individuals (25%), in which psychic stress may be a contributory factor.