Investigation of the PD-1/PD-L1 Expression in the Lesional Skins of Patients with Psoriasis

Citation: Emre S, Süngü N, Hayran Y, Demirseren DD, Aktas A, Duman TÖ. Investigation of the PD-1/PD-L1 Expression in the Lesional Skins of Patients with Psoriasis. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(2):e2023134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1302a134

Accepted: November 17, 2022; Published: April 2023

Copyright: ©2023 Emre et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: None.

Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication.

Corresponding author: Selma Emre, Yildirim Beyazit University, Medical School, Department of Dermatology, Ankara City Hospitals, Orthopedics and Neurology Hospital, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey. ORCID number: 0000-0001-5963-8939 E-mail: dr_semre@yahoo.com

Abstract

Introduction: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated, chronic and inflammatory disease whose pathogenesis is affected by the interactions of several immune cells and cytokines. PD-1 is an inhibitor receptor that is expressed to a large extent in T lymphocytes and responsible for regulating autoimmunity and self-tolerance.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to investigate the expression of PD-1/PD-L molecules in the lesioned skins of psoriasis patients.

Methods: The study included 30 psoriasis patients, and 15 healthy volunteers as the control group. Anti PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies were applied to the skin biopsy samples that were collected from the patient and control groups. Cytoplasmic and membranous staining of PD-1 and PD-L1 were considered positive. The number of stained immune cells that was examined for each case.

Results: The percentage of the tissues with high PD-1 (+) and PDL-1 (+) immune cell counts were significantly higher in the psoriasis patients compared to healthy controls (P values = 0.004 and 0.002, respectively). A negative and statistically significant correlation was detected between PDL-1(+) immune cell numbers and PASI scores (P = 0.033, r=-0.57).

Conclusions: In the lesioned skin samples of psoriasis patients, the PD-1 and PD-L1 expressions were significantly higher in immune cells than that in the skin samples of the healthy controls. This study was the first investigation of the expression of PD-1/PD-L molecules in the immune cells in found the lesioned skins of psoriasis patients.

Keywords : autoimmunity, immunohistochemistry, PD1, PDL-1, psoriasis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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