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Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Cultivating a Three-dimensional Reconstructed Human Epidermis at a Large Scale
Published on: May 28, 2021
Interleukin (IL)-18, cooperatively with IL-23, induces prominent inflammation and enhances psoriasis-like epidermal
Noriko Shimoura1, Hiroshi Nagai2, Susumu Fujiwara1
1Division of Dermatology, Department of Internal Related, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-1 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan.
Abstract:
The interleukin (IL)-23/IL-17 axis is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Previous studies showed that IL-18 was elevated in early active and progressive plaque-type psoriatic lesions and that serum or plasma levels of IL-18 correlated with the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index. However, the mechanism whereby IL-18 affects disease severity remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of IL-18 on a psoriasis-like skin inflammation model induced by recombinant mouse IL-23. We found that IL-18, cooperatively with IL-23, induced prominent inflammation and enhanced psoriasis-like epidermal hyperplasia. In the skin of mice treated with IL-23 plus IL-18, the expression of interferon-γ was significantly upregulated and that of chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9 (CXCL9) was synergistically increased. Histologically, strong positive signals of CXCL9 were observed around the infiltrating inflammatory cells. The current results suggest that IL-18 might synergize with IL-23 to induce a T helper 1 immune reaction, without inhibiting the IL-23/IL-17 axis, and thus may aggravate psoriatic inflammation.
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