Decreased hydrosoluble antioxidant capacity in women: comment on the paper by Guarrera & Rebora on polymorphic light eruption

Sir, We read with interest the paper of Guarrera & Rebora (1) on the hydrosoluble antioxidant capacity (HAOC) of serum of patients with polymorphic light eruption (PLE). We were involved in a similar study that aimed to establish the role of uric acid in total HAOC. In particular, Guarrera & Rebora observed that the total HAOC is reduced in females regardless of whether they are patients or controls. We regard this novel finding as important and worthy of confirmation. We studied 55 subjects (21 men and 34 women; age range 21–62 years). Fourteen of them (3 men and 11 women; aged 40±12.8 years) had PLE and 41 were controls (18 men and 23 women; aged 41±11.1 years). All patients gave their informed consent. Triplicate HAOC measurements in the presence and absence of uricase were obtained with commercial kits, PAO and PAO-U (MED-DIA, Vercelli, Italy). All serum samples were processed at the time of collection. Statistical analysis was performed with MiniTab ver. 15. (Table I). HAOC measurements in samples deprived of uric acid (HAOC-uricase) were lower than in those with uric acid (F=205.6, p