Abnormalities in cytokine secretion from mesenchymal stem cells in psoriatic skin lesions.

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory and proliferative skin disease associated with immune abnormalities. In our preliminary studies, it was found that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were abnormal in patients with psoriasis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are not only present in the bone marrow, but can also be separated from the skin.We reasoned that an investigation into the biological characteristics of MSCs in psoriatic skin lesions could more realistically reflect the actual conditions for the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

OBJECTIVE: To reveal whether MSCs in psoriatic skin lesions are abnormal.

METHODS: We obtained MSCs from psoriatic skin lesions and healthy human skin and identified these cells using flow cytometry and a cell differentiation assay; cytokine concentrations in the culture supernatants were measured with the ELISA assay. We compared cytokine concentrations in culture supernatants of MSCs derived from psoriatic skin lesions as well as those from healthy human skin.

RESULTS: Compared with healthy control skintissue, in psoriatic skin lesions, MSC secretion of EGF, SCF, and IL-11 increased; secretion of bFGF, IL-3, IL-6, IL-8, and HGF decreased (p<0.05); and secretion of VEGF, M-CSF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, LIF, IL-1, IL-7, IL-10, and TNF-α showed no significant difference (p>0.05). Surface markers and the differentiation capacity of cells from the two sources were similar.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that MSCs derived from psoriatic skin lesions had abnormalities, which may be one of the pathogenic mechanisms of psoriasis.