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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

A Mouse Model to Assess Innate Immune Response to Staphylococcus aureus Infection
Published on: February 28, 2019
HLA allele associations and V-beta T-lymphocyte expansions in patients with psoriasis, harboring toxin-producing
Rola Ajib1, Lori Janbazian, Elias Rahal
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
Abstract:
HLA alleles have been associated with psoriasis. Toxin-producing strains of Staphylococcus aureus behave as superantigens, and if present in patients, might play a role in the exacerbation of psoriatic lesions by activating certain V-beta (V beta) T-lymphocyte subsets. Allele frequencies in 22 patients and 22 controls (alleles determined by DNA/SSP typing) were used to calculate a relative risk of $4.7$ ($P < .05$) for HLA-Cw6. S aureus was isolated from the throat of 11 patients. Enterotoxins A and C were detected by agglutination in the culture filtrate of one isolate. The enterotoxin A and/or C genes were detected by PCR in 9 isolates, and transcripts were detected by RT-PCR in 7 of them. None of the isolates from controls harbored enterotoxin genes. V beta expansions were detected by RT-PCR in all 22 patients. Low or no V beta expansions were obtained in controls. The association of HLA-Cw6 with psoriasis in Lebanese concurs with that reported for other ethnic groups. Toxin-producing isolates that colonize patients might play a role in the exacerbation of psoriatic lesions.
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