Relative Frequency of CD137-positive Inflammatory Cells in Psoriasis Skin Lesions in Comparison with Normal Skin Specimens

Background: TNF-alpha and its receptors (TNFR) has received many attentions as a therapeutic target due to the elevated levels in both blood and skin lesions of psoriasis patients. In this study, the CD137 expression as a TNFR was investigated at the inflammatory cells in psoriasis skin lesions.Methods: 64 psoriasis skin lesions specimens (40% male, mean age 40 years) and 34 normal skin specimens (46% male, mean age 43 years) were obtained from pathology department of Al-Zahra hospital between 2007-2016 years from paraffin-embedded skin biopsies. The immunohistochemical staining for CD137, CD4, and CD8 was performed to determine the relative frequency of CD137-positive inflammatory cells in the dermis and epidermis of psoriasis skin lesions in comparison with normal skin. In addition, the CD137-positive inflammatory cells relative frequency and CD4/CD8 ratio relation was investigated.Results: Significant percentage of inflammatory cells expressed CD137 (11.19 ± 5.5%) at psoriasis lesions. However, CD137 expression was extremely rare at the normal skin specimens (1.3 ± 3.03%). The relative frequency of the CD137-positive cells in the epidermis was significantly more than the epidermis of psoriasis lesions (Epidermis: 31.1% ± 12.8, dermis 11.1% ± 5.5). There was no meaningful relation between the CD137 expression rate and CD4/CD8 ratio.Conclusion: Considerable CD137-positive inflammatory cells are attracted to the psoriasis skin lesions especially in the epidermis. This fact is true in both early and chronic psoriasis lesions. According to the probable role of the CD137-positive cells in the pathogenesis of the psoriasis lesion, it can open a new horizon for novel treatments.

کلیدواژه ها:

Psoriasis ، CD137 ، T cell ، TNF-alpha ، Tumor necrosis factor receptor