Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, has been associated with type 2 diabetes, the body mass index and obesity in a study of Danish twins, which also suggests the possibility of a common genetic cause between psoriasis andObesity, according to an article published in the digital edition of the 'Jama Dermatology' magazine.
Psoriasis has been linked to components of metabolic syndrome, especially obesity and diabetes.Several factors can explain this relationship, including genetics and a series of environmental exhibitions, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and shared immunoinflamatory pathways.Investigations with twins can help explore possible common causes of associated pathologies.
Ann Sophie Lönnberg, from the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark, and co -authors studied pairs of Danish twins between 20 and 71 years.The data of a questionnaire about psoriasis were validated with diagnoses of Hospital Diabetes type 2 and information of the body mass index themselves (BMI).
Complete data of 33,588 twins were included in the study and more than half of them were women.The prevalence of psoriasis in the total sample was 4.2 percent (630 men and 771 women), and the prevalence of diabetes was 1.4 percent (235 women and 224 men).The average BMI for the analyzed group was 24.5;Obessed individuals with a body mass index 30 to 34 represent 6.3 percent of the population.
More risk of obesity in people with psoriasis among the 459 people with diabetes, the prevalence of psoriasis was 7.6 percent (n = 31) compared to 4.1 percent (n = 1.370) among individuals among individualsNo diabetes;The average BMI of people with psoriasis was greater than among those who did not suffer from psoriasis (25 compared to 24.4), according to the results.The risk of obesity (BMI greater than 30) was greater among people with psoriasis and the prevalence of obesity increased with the increase in BMI.
There were 720 pairs of discordant twins for psoriasis, in which one of the twins suffered the disease and the other did not.The twins with psoriasis presented an BMI superior to the co-gemelos without psoriasis and were more likely to be obese.The prevalence of diabetes was the same in twins with psoriasis compared to co-gemelos without psoriasis.
The analysis suggests that the association between psoriasis and obesity, in part, could be the result of a common genetic cause.The authors cannot infer causality.Psoriasis could predispose people to a more sedentary lifestyle, which leads to behaviors that predispose them to obesity and diabetes, or these diseases could be a cause of psoriasis.
"Psoriasis, type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity are strongly associated in adults after taking into account key confusion factors, such as sex, age and smoking. Results indicate a common genetic etiology of psoriasis and obesity.The realization of future studies on specific genes and epigenetic factors make this association important, "concludes the study.
