Cross-sectional study of blood biomarkers of patients with moderate to severe alopecia areata reveals systemic immune and cardiovascular biomarker dysregulation

Although there is increased understanding of the alopecia areata (AA) pathogenesis based on studies in scalp tissues, little is known about its systemic profile. To evaluate the blood proteomic signature of AA and determine biomarkers associated with increased disease severity. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed 350 inflammatory and cardiovascular proteins using OLINK high-throughput proteomics in patients with moderate to severe AA (n = 35), as compared with healthy individuals (n = 36), patients with moderate to severe psoriasis (n = 19), and those with atopic dermatitis (n = 49). Seventy-four proteins were significantly differentially expressed between AA and control individuals (false discovery rate,