Carotenoid Levels in Dermatoses

Overview

Carotenoids are important factors in human health. They exhibit biological activities as antioxi-dants, affect cell growth regulation, and modulate gene expression and immune response. Theessential role of b-carotene and other as the main dietary source of vitamin A has been known formany years. The aim of this study was to evaluate a content of physiologically significant carotenoids(b-carotene, a-carotene, lutein, lycopene) in a group of 258 dermatological patients and 29 controlsubjects. The results obtained by evaluating individual subgroups of patients divided according totype of their dermatose make it clear, that decreased level of carotenoids is accompanied withpsoriasis, lichen, leg ulcers, skin tumours and most of infectious dermatoses, while increased levelsof carotenoids were observed in patients with lymphoedema and in diabetics.In the whole study group a positive correlation between amount of serum total carotenoids andserum lutein (r = 0.825), lycopene (r = 0.776), a-carotene (r = 0.657) and b-carotene (r = 0.556) and/orbetween serum a-carotene and b-carotene (r = 0.849) was proved. With the aim to choice an optimalcarotenoid supplement, a pilot epidemiological ministudy was realized. In 18 healthy volunteersa comparison of changes of serum carotenoids (and retinol) after 60-day intake of natural and/orsynthetic supplies of carotenoids was perfomed. According to results obtained, an ideal supplementshould contain a mixture of naturally-occurred carotenoids to ensure adequate blood levels of allcarotenoids common in the human body.

Key words:
carotenoids - b-carotene - a-carotene - lutein - lycopene - dermatoses