Cellular reactivity of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in psoriasis and atopic dermatitis--measurement of lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence

Abstract

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) of patients suffering from psoriasis and atopic dermatitis are supposed to differ in their function from the PMN of normals. However, conflicting results have been reported. Using a lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence we investigated the response of isolated PMN from patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis to different stimuli. PMN of 17 patients with psoriasis and 13 patients with AD with mild to moderate disease activity were stimulated with a chemotactic peptide (f-met-phe), zymosan activated serum (ZAS), zymosan particles and phorbol myristate acetate. In the AD group we found a significantly decreased response after stimulation with ZAS in comparison to the controls. With the other stimuli tested no significant difference was detected. In comparison to normal controls psoriatic PMN showed no significant difference with any of the stimuli. Comparing patients with plaque-type and guttate-type psoriasis no significant difference was detected. We suggest that the reported hyperactivation of psoriatic PMN could be triggered by serum factors which were excluded in the present investigation. The decreased response of PMN to stimulation with ZAS from patients with AD associated with a normal reactivity to the other stimuli could be due to specific desensitization of the PMN by C5a in vivo.