Expression of CXCR3 mRNA in peripheral blood lymphocytes and neutrophils in patients with psoriasis

    YANG Guiª²Lan, CHEN Zhiª²Qiang, ZHENG Jiaª²Run, LI Xinª²Yu, CHEN Yun, XU Lanª²Fang, GAO Jiª²Wei, TANG Meiª²Yu

    Department of Dermatology, Lanzhou General Hospital, Lanzhou Military Area Command, Lanzhou 730050, China, Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing 210042, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the expression of chemokine receptor CXCR3 mRNA in peripheral blood lymphocytes and neutrophils in patients with progressive plaque psoriasis and its correlation with Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). METHODS: Reverse transcriptaseª²polymerase chain reaction (RTª²PCR) was applied to semiª²quantitatively analyze CXCR3 mRNA expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes and neutrophils from 33 psoriatic cases, 16 cases with about 70% remission of the 33 patients after treatment and 30 healthy controls. The correlation between CXCR3 mRNA expression and PASI was evaluated. RESULTS: CXCR3 mRNA level in lymphocytes from psoriatic patients was 1.12¡À0.81, markedly higher than that in normal controls (0.28¡À0.28, P<0.01)and treated patients(0.57¡À0.61, P<0.05). Furthermore, a positive correlation was noticed between CXCR3 mRNA expression and PASI(r=0.516, P<0.05). However, there was no statistic significance in CXCR3 mRNA level in neutrophils among pretreated psoriatic patients(1.72¡À1.68), normal controls (1.27¡À1.17, P>0.05) and treated patients(1.27¡À1.01, P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The increased expression of CXCR3 in lymphocytes may be associated with migration and aggregation of lymphocytes in psoriatic lesion, suggesting that this chemokine receptor be involved in the pathogenesis of progressive plaque psoriasis. ......