Psoriasis: maintenance of an intact monolayer basal cell differentiation compartment in spite of hyperproliferation

Frozen sections of punch biopsies from normal epidermis and psoriatic involved and uninvolved epidermis have been examined immunocytochemically using a panel of anti-keratin monoclonal antibodies with various specificities in the skin. Since psoriasis is thought to involve hyperproliferative expansion of the basal compartment from one to about three cell layers in thickness, the samples were screened with antibodies to intermediate filament determinants associated with basal cells, suprabasal cells and hyperproliferating keratinocyte-derived cell lines, respectively. The basal-suprabasal division was observed to be intact, with only one layer of basal cells demarcated by the specific antibodies used under all circumstances. This suggests that (a) psoriatic "basal cell hyperproliferation' may not specifically involve the basal cell compartment containing the stem cells, but rather a population of amplifying transit cells which are predominantly suprabasal, and that (b) while keratinocyte differentiation begins as the cells lose contact with the basal lamina, the first stages at least of differentiation are not dependent on the loss of the capacity to divide.