Endothelin-1 Levels are Increased in Sera and Lesional Skin Extracts of Psoriatic Patients and Correlate with Disease Severity.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00015559850135779Abstract
Endothelins (ETs);in addition to their systematical activities;exert important functions at the skin level;such as increase of keratinocyte proliferation;neo-angiogenesis and leukocyte chemotaxis;which are among the main characteristics of psoriasis. To assess a possible ET-1 involvement in plaque-type psoriasis;ET-1 determinations were carried out in 15 sera and 8 lesional and non-lesional biopsy skin extracts from psoriatic patients and in 15 sera and 5 biopsy skin extracts from healthy volunteers;sex- and age-matched;using commercially available ELISA kits. A statistical analysis of the results showed that ET-1 levels were increased in sera of psoriatic patients;as compared to normal subjects (p = 0.04). In addition;there was a significant correlation between both serum (r = 0.60;p = 0.02) and lesional skin (r = 0.80;p = 0.03) ET-1 values versus the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index scores. Significant increases of the lesional versus the non-lesional (p = 0.01) and versus the normal (p = 0.04) ET-1 skin extract values were observed;together with a significant correlation between lesional and non-lesional ET-1 skin levels (r = 0.79;p = 0.03). These findings were also confirmed at the mRNA level;using RT-PCR analysis;where increased ET-1 mRNA levels;densitometrically measured;were found in the lesional samples versus non-lesional and normal skin. Since interleukin-8 is involved in psoriasis and shares some biological properties with ET-1;we further evaluated the levels of this cytokine in skin extracts. The behaviour of interleukin-8 paralleled that of ET-1;and a significant correlation between these two molecules was observed in the lesional skin (r = 0.76;p = 0.05). Taken together;these data stress that;as previously described for interleukin-8;ET-1 may be involved in inflammatory processes associated with psoriasis.Downloads
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