[Characteristics of the lipid transport system in psoriasis]

Cholesterol of high density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions (HDL2 and HDL3), activity of cholesterol ester transport protein (CETP), and standard lipoprotein parameters (cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol) were measured in plasma of 192 patients with various psoriasis forms, which included simple "distributed psoriasis", erythrodermic and arthropathic psoriasis. Among psoriatic patients unusually high percent of persons with both hypo- and hyper-cholesterolemia was observed. The same situation was observed with frequency of cases with both low and high plasma HDL cholesterol levels, the distribution being depending from disease severity. In contrast to norm, psoriasis patients had big range not only in HDL2 cholesterol level, but also in HDL3 cholesterol. They also had decreased CETP activity. Data obtained suggest the existence of changes in reverse cholesterol transport system in psoriasis, which may influence skin cell proliferation (via control of cell supply with cholesterol).