Allergic diseases of the skin and drug allergies – 2003. Augmented telomerase activity and reduced telomere length as a disease makrer in parthenium induced contact dermatitis patients

Background Parthenium dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease with activated T-lymphocytes that recognize the antigens and undergo proliferation and differentiation. T-cells have a pathogenic role in many inflammatory diseases. Telomeres are specialized repeats at the end of chromosomes that protect it from degradation, end-to-end fusion and important for the integrity. Till date there is no report on telomerase activity and TRF length in the lymphocytes of parthenium dermatitis. The aim of our study was to observe the involvement of TH1 & TH2 type responses and to measure telomerase activity and telomere length in PBMC, CD4 and CD8T lymphocytes in parthenium dermatitis patients.