CCL1, Specific Manifestation in Lesional Atopic Skin

Ahn, In Su; Kim, Hye One; Park, Chun Wook; Lee, Cheol Heon

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Chemokines represent a superfamily of small cytokine-like chemoattractive proteins, which regulate leukocyte trafficking under homeostatic and inflammatory conditions. There have been previous reports that chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 1 (CCL1), a member of the family of chemoattractive proteins, is increasingly expressed in atopic dermatitis.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to evaluate the quantity and the pattern of CCL1 expression in atopic dermatitis (AD).
METHODS
Biopsy specimens were taken from atopic skin and normal-appearing skin of AD patients as well as psoriatic skin of psoriasis patients. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses and immunohistochemistry of CCL1 expression were performed, and the quantity of CCL1 expression in acute AD was compared with those of normal-appearing atopic skin and psoriatic skin. The serum level of CCL1 was measured by ELISA.
RESULTS
CCL1 was most often expressed in acute atopic skin lesions, and the absolute amount of CCL1 18s rRNA in lesional atopic skin was 14.5-fold higher than that in non-lesional atopic skin. Moreover, CCL1 was expressed within the basal layer of the epidermis as well as in the dermis of the lesional atopic skin. However, CCL1 was expressed mostly in the dermis.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, CCL1 represents a chemokine that is associated with flare-up of AD, and it may play an important role as a trigger of AD in the initiation and amplification of atopic skin inflammation in the acute phase.