Dermatology is a rapidly developing field of medicine, either in terms of etiopathogenesis of diseases or their treatment. I hope the issues discussed in this cycle of publications will arouse interest of a broad range of readers.

Certain progress has been visible in the scope of molecular biology techniques during the last few decades. The very interesting and original teamwork was to evaluate changes in the expressions of genes encoding TGF-β1-3 isoforms in psoriatic patients when compared with healthy persons and indicate possibilities to use the cytokine as a new complementary molecular marker. The achieved results indicate that determination of TGF-β1-3 expression may become a useful, new molecular marker in psoriasis, integrating into the strategy of therapy personalisation. It may be stated that such determination would not be very burdensome or troublesome from the patient’s point of view.

The second work form the centre in Katowice involves a correlation between E-selectin concentration and soluble interleukin-2 receptor in serum and a capillaroscopic assessment of the nailfold microcirculation in patients with limited scleroderma. The objective of the paper was to determine the correlation between E-selectin concentration and sIL-2R and occurrence of possible abnormalities in nailfold microcirculation in various forms of limited scleroderma (LOS). Additionally, the relationship between the lesions from LOS sub-type in capillaroscopy was evaluated in patients with limited scleroderma. The authors claim that the role of capillaroscopy in diagnostics of limited scleroderma is significant. Though abnormalities in nailfold microcirculation are rarely observed in the disease in question, their occurrence has considerable clinical implications and requires further observation. Possible concurrence of LOS and limited scleroderma or the probability of lesion progression towards SSc suggest that capillaroscopy is recommended for all patients with limited scleroderma, especially those showing extracutaneous symptoms.

Two original works presented in the Monthly magazine were elaborated in the centre in Lublin, under supervision of professor Grażyna Chodorowska and professor Dorota Krasowska. The aim of the first work was to evaluate concentrations of selected adipokines in serum of patients with common psoriasis and examine possible interdependencies with selected laboratory and clinical parameters. Among the chosen adipokines, resistin shows the greatest relationship with the intensification of skin lesions, expressed with PASI ratio. Apart from that, leptin and growth factor originating from pigment epithelium show the biggest dependency with body mass disorders, expressed with BMI, leptin and chemerin show the greater interrelationship with lipid profile disorders in psoriatic patients. Results of the conducted studies indicate the possible share of tested adipokines in pathological processes leading to psoriaris.

The second work involved assessment of health-related behaviour in patients with limited scleroderma and determination of interrelationship between the discussed elements and intensification of lesions in the skin and organs. Own studies showed that a general health-related behaviour ratio in patients with limited scleroderma was significantly higher than in the control group (p < 0.001). Such interdependency was ascertained in all examined fields. Patients with limited scleroderma showed considerably higher health-related behaviour ratio than persons from the control group, which indicates that health risk factors mobilized patients to undertake pro-health behaviour.