Interleukin-8 Expression in Psoriatic Skin of Different Disease Activities

Jeong, So Hee; Lee, Jeong Deok; Byun, Dae Gyoo; Kim, Si Yong

Abstract

Psoriasis is a relatively common disorder that affects at least 1-2% of the population, however, the pathogenesis is not fully understood yet. Histopathologically, psoriatic lesion is characterized by hyperplasia of keratinocyte, intraepidermal neutrophil accumulation and activated T lymphocyte infiltration in the dermis. Among many cytokines, IL-8 is known to play a role for the activation and migration for neutrophil and T lymphocyte and for the proliferation of keratinocyte. We performed immunohistochemical staining with anti-IL-8 monoclonal antibody for the active lesion, stable lesion and normal-looking skin of ten psoriatic patients and ten healthy controls. Strong expression of IL-8 in the epidermis and dermis was noted from the active as well as stable psoriatic skins. In the normal-looking skin of the psoriatic patients, only faint expression which is not different from healthy control skin, was noted. These observations indicate that the expression of IL-8 is increased in psoriatic lesion, and IL-S is important for the initiation and maintenance of psoriasis.