John Libbey Eurotext




Clinical analysis of staphylococcal superantigen hyper-reactive patients with psoriasis vulgaris
European Journal of Dermatology. Volume 8, Number 5, 325-9, July - August 1998, Revues
Free Article
Author(s) : Toshiyuki YAMAMOTO, Ichiro KATAYAMA, Kiyashi NISHIOKA
Summary : It has been recently hypothesized that superantigens, which stimulate T cells expressing particular T cell receptor V chain gene segments, play a precipitating or aggravating role in psoriasis. In this study, we investigated the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) response of patients with psoriasis vulgaris to staphylococcal superantigens (staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), SEB, and SEC1) and its relationship to clinical and laboratory findings. Cytokine secretion was assessed by ELISA in the supernatants of the cultured PBMCs stimulated with SEB. Results of 3 H-TdR uptake showed that the PBMCs’ response against SEB in patients with psoriasis vulgaris (34,468 ± 6,455) (mean DPM ± SD) was significantly higher than that of normal subjects (22,756 5,780) (p < 0.005). The stimulation index (SI) of patients with psoriasis vulgaris (n = 37) (63.9 ±55) was significantly higher than that of normal subjects (n = 24) (26.0 ± 23) (p < 0.005) and patients with atopic dermatitis (n = 10) (40.7 ± 30) (p < 0.05). Similar results were obtained in response to SEA and SEC1. SI weakly correlated with the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score (r = 0.62) and the serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentration (r = 0.45). IL-2 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF- ) were secreted at a significantly increased level by PBMCs from psoriatic patients on incubation with SEB, after a 3 day culture period. A higher level of IL-6 was released by PBMCs stimulated with SEB in psoriatic patients than normal controls, however, the difference was not significant. These results raise the possibility that monocytes, as well as T cells, are markedly activated by staphylococcal superantigen in patients with psoriasis vulgaris, which may play a role in the triggering or aggravating of psoriasis mediated by secreted cytokines.
Keywords : psoriasis, staphylo-coccalenterotoxin, cytokine.)

Clinical analysis of staphylococcal superantigen hyper-reactive patients with psoriasis vulgaris