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European Journal of Dermatology

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Study on the expression of RXRα in patients with psoriasis vulgaris Volume 16, issue 1, January-February 2006

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Authors
Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing 210042, China

Retinoic acid regulates keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation – processes that are disturbed in psoriatic skin – via binding to nuclear receptors, including retinoic acid receptor (RAR-α,β,γ) and the common heterodimer partners (RXR-α,β,γ). By RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry methods, the expression of RXRα was studied in psoriatic skin and controls. The expression of RXRα was down-regulated in patients with psoriasis; moreover, its level was related to the stage of the disease; in the progressive stage of the disease, the level of the RXRα was lower than in the stable stage. The results suggest that retinoid signaling is abnormal in lesional psoriatic skin, RXRα expression is mainly confined to differentiated keratinocytes.