Combined Microneedling and Topical Pentoxifylline Vesrus Intalesional Pentoxifylline in Treatment of Alopecia Areata: Intra-indiviual Comparative Study

Alopecia areata (AA) is a common autoimmune disease that targets hair follicles with a prevalence of approximately 0.1% and a lifetime incidence of approximately 1.7%. AA is the third most prevalent nonscarring hair loss disease. Pentoxifylline (PTX) is a non-selective inhibitor of phosphodiesterases, which moderates the intracellular levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate and cyclic guanosine monophosphate by decreasing their hydrolysis and augmenting cyclic nucleotide-dependent signal transduction which leads to a wide spectrum of effects on the inflammation. PTX has anti inflammatory effects by inhibiting the pro-inflammatory cytokines (eg, IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8).Intralesional therapy has a number of advantages over topical therapy, including a faster and longer duration of action, penetration that is deeper than topical therapy, removal of the need for long-term topical medication, and improved patient compliance.The effect of microneedling for treatment of AA is supposed to stimulate the dermal papilla and stem cells by mechanical trauma and increasing the blood supply to the hair follicles.