Antinuclear Antibodies Titres Potentially Linked to Rosacea

David A. Castillo-Molina, PhD

A new investigation from Colombia found that antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) titers were commonly found in patients with rosacea.

Additionally, of the different rosacea phenotypes included in the study, no statistical difference in ANAs was observed.

Though there are a variety of clinical presentations of rosacea, the skin condition remains very recognizable. Furthermore, previous research indicated increased ANAs titres in affected patients.

Despite this, it remains unclear whether an autoimmune basis for the development of rosacea should be considered.

With the present study, investigators led by David A. Castillo-Molina, PhD, of the Foundation for Research in Dermatology detailed the behavior of ANAs according to the different rosacea phenotypes in a Colombian population, all of whom were evaluated in a dermatologic center.

Castillo-Molina and colleagues measured ANAs using indirect immunofluorescence, a technique used to detect autoantibodies in patient serum.

A total of 407 patients with a diagnosis of rosacea from a dermatological center in Bogotá, Colombia, were featured in the study. Investigators determined the phenotype of the patients based on clinical morphology of the cutaneous lesions.

A data analysis was conducted using Epi info 7.

Among the 407 patients, 78.86% (321) were women. Notably, investigators observed that half of the male patients featured in the study had elevated ANAs titres compared to 46.42% (149) of women.

Additionally, the majority of male patients (118) had a dilution of 1/80. Among the ANAs-positive patients, Castillo-Molina and colleagues observed that the speckled pattern was among the most common pattern found in 47.84% (89).

Regarding rosacea phenotype, 47.18% of ANAs-positive patients had papulo-pustular lesions (67), 47.62% has telangiectasias (180), and 52.78% had phyma (18).

Additionally, 44% of patients with transient erythema had positive ANAs, as did 51.90% of patients with persistent erythema 51.90% (n=82) and 45.69% of patients with ocular manifestations (90).

Based on the data, investigators considered positive ANAs titres to be a recurrent finding in patients affected by rosacea, stating that “at the moment, it is not clear if there is an association between ANAs’ positivity and rosacea’s background.”

The findings were presented at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) 2022 Annual Meeting in Boston in late March.