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Granulysin expression increases with increasing clinical severity of psoriasis
Author(s) -
Elgarhy L. H.,
Shareef M. M.,
Moustafa S. M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/ced.12560
Subject(s) - psoriasis , granulysin , medicine , dermatology , severity of illness , immunology , immune system , perforin , cd8
Summary Background Psoriasis is an erythematosquamous dermatosis, which has strong expression of antimicrobial peptides ( AMP s), imparting a high resistance to lesional skin infection. Granulysin is a proinflammatory AMP that has been found in some infection‐resistant dermatoses. Aim To assess granulysin expression in psoriasis. Methods Immunohistochemical expression of granulysin was assessed in lesional skin biopsies taken from 30 patients with psoriasis and 10 normal skin specimens from healthy controls ( HCs ) matched for age, gender and skin site. Granulysin expression was found to be high in 11 patients (36.7%), moderate in 10 (33.3%) and low in 9 (30%). A highly significant ( P = 0.001) difference in granulysin expression between patients with psoriasis and HCs was found. There were also significant differences in granulysin expression between patients with low P soriasis A rea and S everity I ndex ( PASI ) (≤ 10) and those with high PASI (> 10) ( P = 0.001), and between patients with early‐onset (< 40 years of age) and those with late‐onset (> 40 years of age) disease ( P < 0.04). There was a significant ( P = 0.001) positive correlation between granulysin expression and PASI ( r = 0.84) and a significant ( P = 0.02) negative correlation with age of onset ( r = −0.38). Patients with psoriasis hadhigh granulysin expression, which increased with increased clinical severity of the disease. Conclusions These findings suggest a role for granulysin in psoriasis pathogenesis, and may explain the triggering effect of skin infection in psoriasis. If the pathogenic role of granulysin is substantiated by further studies, granulysin may be a potential target for immunomodulatory therapy for psoriasis.