European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Alopecia is a Latin word meaning hair loss or baldness and includes many types of hair loss. The
underlying cause of AA is unknown, but recent evidence suggests that it is a chronic inflammatory
disease of the hair follicles. Based on the histological evidence of peripheral follicular fibrosis and an
increase in the number of mast cells - which can increase the synthesis of elastic fibers - it appears that
there may be a link between mast cells and alopecia. The present cross-sectional descriptive-analytical
study was performed on formalin and paraffin-embedded tissues of patients diagnosed with alopecia,
as well as 20 paraffin-embedded scalp samples of "healthy" patients without reporting Alopecia. In
order to evaluate the number of mast cells, Giemsa cytochemical staining was performed. The results
show that the mean number of mast cells in AA and AS patients was 18 and 19, respectively, which did
not show a significant difference. However, this rate was 18.75 in patients with Alopecia and 6.5 in the
control group, which shows a statistically significant difference between the two. Also, the number of
mast cells in the biopsy of patients with alopecia was significantly higher than normal individuals,
which indicates the role of these cells in the pathogenesis of alopecia.