A role for humoral factors in psoriasis

Because a large body of evidence suggests that the presence of circulating humoral factors could play a role in the induction/maintenance/resolution of psoriasis and because few investigators have explored their potential, we elected to conduct a survey analysis of the effects of the noncellular component of blood, serum, from normal and psoriatic subjects on assays of the inflammatory/immune system and on cell proliferation. Sera from psoriatic subjects are less chemotactic for monocytes than normal; this does not appear to be secondary to excess inhibitors for the chemoattractants, ZAS and bacterial factor. Preincubation of monocytes in psoriasis sera and normal sera results in an equal degree of inhibition of subsequent chemotaxis by monocytes. Relative to media alone, both normal and psoriasis sera equally inhibit DNA synthesis of HeLa cells. The addition of psoriasis sera to mitogenically stimulated lymphocytes will selectively suppress the blastogenic response in comparison to normal sera. These differences prompted a 2-d gel electrophoresis analysis of sera of psoriatic subjects. Specific differences are noted in the group of proteins migrating in the area of alpha 1 antitrypsin. These findings suggest that the noncellular component of the humoral system must also be factored into considerations of the etiopathology of psoriasis.